Our demonstrator for December was Dianne Panarelli Miller. She presented an oil painting demonstration.
The meeting was held in the Guild Hall, First Congregational Church (middle side door), Sanborn Street, Reading, Wednesday December 10th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.
We have some photographs of the event in case you could not make it there in person. You can click on any of the images on this page to view a larger version of it. Then, use the Back button on your browser to return to this page.
This is Dianne's setup. She demonstrated an oil
painting using another of her paintings as the reference.
She uses a paper towel to coat the entire canvas with red paint.
She always tones the canvas and she always uses red.
In this photo, Dianne is blocking in the basic forms of the painting.
Her goal is to block in the entire painting in half an hour.
The darks go in first. She paints the darks thin and
transparent and the lights are painted "thick and juicy".
Next, the mid tones go in.
Here is the state of the painting at the break;
To make it easier to paint over the roughed-in paint,
Dianne blots the entire canvas with a paper towel.
That takes up any excess paint that is there.
Then, she smooths out the edges by rubbing the
surface of the painting with a paper towel.
There are no hard edges in the clouds.
The brushes get smaller as the details go in.
You can see that more details are in, and the sky has been refined.
For a mahl stick, she uses device meant to train dogs.
It is called a "Dog Pointer". It collapses for transport.
The final painting.
Dianne donated the painting to RAA for a later raffle.
Look for it at an upcoming show.
You can see some of Dianne's work at her web site, diannepmiller.com/
Dianne Panarelli Miller is never one to take the easy way out. She studied art for 10 years in college, private classes, and ateliers and has painted tirelessly for 35 more years to develop her craft. Not wanting to paint like anyone else, she worked hard to paint in her own voice from life and not from photographs. Enduring long hours bartending for 17 years and bringing up her daughter, Dianne still managed to paint full time.
After graduating from Braintree High School, Dianne received a diploma at Vesper George College of Art. There she met and later studied intensively with Robert Cormier until she began at the R. H. Ives Gammel Atelier, established by Cormier and Robert Douglas Hunter in Gammel's honor. She studied the traditional way to paint, in the "Boston Tradition", full-time year-round for five years. David Lowery and Robert Moore were also included in the roster of impressive teachers. While studying at the Atelier and being surrounded by the art galleries of Newbury Street and museums of Boston, she discovered the type of artist she wanted to be and began her quest to be one.
Dianne is represented in many fine galleries as well as hundreds of pribate collections, locally and nationally. Recently her oil painting "Blue" was accepted at the National Endowment Show in Naples, Florida. She is well-known on the South Shore, is a signature member of the New England Plein Air Painters, and has the distinguished honor of "Copley Master" at The Copley Society in Boston. She is also a member of the Portrait Society of America and the Oil Painters of America.