Diane J. Hinsvark Eide Visual artist
Diane J. Hinsvark Eide VISUAL ARTIST
2014.
PUBLISHED BY
GALLERY ARTEZI
“Tucson Saguaro” Watercolor, 28” x 20”, 2007
Diane J. Hinsvark Eide Artist “Paintings and Pastels : Fauna – Fruit – Figures” “Interpretive Studies of, Places, Objects, and People”
Introduction This brief compilation of selected images is drawn from the February 2013 exhibition of works by Diane J. Hinsvark Eide at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The exhibition “Paintings and Pastels : Fauna - Fruit – Figures” of some 35 works was staged in the Eide/Dalrymple, Fine Art Gallery. Subject matter was the landscape of Arizona, the Midwest, West, and Norway. Still lifes are of a specific object and placement, or of mixed objects. The figure has always been of particular interest in all media. During this period of time other works produced in a series could have been included, but a choice was made to show diversity in media and subject matter. The grouping of works is by media and the two abstract acrylic paintings are included with the oils on canvas. The artist states, “ordinary objects are the subject matter” of works from the past 25 years, with the exception being her non-objective work. As a teacher of the Fine-Arts, Art Museum Director and as her husband, I have always observed and been closely involved as a facilitator with her art production and materials. Over the years, I have noted how easily she works various media and images separately and simultaneously. Viewers often interpret the variety of subjects and media of oil, watercolor and pastel, as stylistically different, but in reality her style remains consistent in its clarity and subtlety. To me there is a fresh quality to her pieces, and I believe it comes partly with using more than one medium. Also, confidence in the image development and completion comes in part with fine drawing skills, innate design and color sense. I appreciate the critical thoughts of Carl Grupp, John Henry Waddell, and Dr. Lindsay Twa. Joel S. Eide, Ed. D. Retired, NAU Professor of Fine Art Retired, NAU Art Museum and Galleries, Director
Artist Statement Diane J. Hinsvark Eide I am an artist who utilizes a variety of painting and drawing media and subjects as a means for artistic expression. In composing a stilllife, for instance, I use ordinary subject matter familiar to all of us. Through editing, simplifying, and thoughtful placement of elements, I hope to encourage the viewer to put aside preconceived ideas and look at the subjects in a different light. I use contrast through light and value to lend a sense of drama and give an abstract quality to the painting. Diane Eide with “Separation” Acrylic, 4’ x 5’
I went through an abstract expressionistic period and sometimes revert to that genre in a painting. Remnants of that style still appear throughout much of my work. Lately I have explored a more precise and intellectual approach. I’ve always delighted in drawing, to me the most elemental of media. I especially love to draw the human figure, often striving to capture the essence of the individual with a few quick expressive lines, but at other times further developing the form, modeling with values, as if creating a sculpture. I also believe that drawing and painting the landscape is one of an artist’s most rewarding experiences. There is no better way of communing with nature than to find a quiet place and attempt to interpret and capture the atmosphere of a scene, whether it is the intense light of the Southwest or the more subdued hues of the fields and prairies of the Midwest. I’m always on a journey with my painting, striving continually to learn and grow. My work keeps evolving and continues to reflect my life’s experiences, including the places where I live and work, and the people I know, and have known.
Carl Grupp The great artist, Paul Cezanne, said, ”With an apple I will astonish Paris.“ I think of Cezanne when I look at Diane Eide’s paintings of still lifes of pears, apples and peaches. Like the great artist, Monet, painted his lily ponds, grasses, and flowers of his Giverny, Diane observes the flora of the high desert of the Verde River Valley. She translates and shares her observations so we can see with fresh eyes the beauty of the landscape of this remarkable land. Carl Grupp
Carl Grupp is a printmaker, painter, and retired professor, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD.
“Red Apples with Shadows” Oil, 40 x 48”, 1989
John Henry Waddell The work of Diane Eide is so deliberate, honest and highly skilled, that it catches one off guard. The more of her paintings one sees, the more one becomes aware and realizes the focus and skill which she has developed in a lifetime consistently devoted to a direct as possible personal portrayal of the landscape and human beings in her work. They are painted with such astonishing skill that she seems to be assessing the people and surrounding life with no artifice. In order to develop this singular skill, she had to follow a course, never taking her inspiration from other artists, but from her inner self and her intense interest in the world environment and the humans in it. It seems that she places the brush exactly where she wants it to go. She is so exact that one is amazed at her lack of grandiosity. As she continues in her work with no artifice, but direct observation of humanity and nature, she will become ever more proficient. There is a great deal to be said for continuous development in a unique and personal direction. Only she in her highly developed skill can discover the delicacy and subtleness of her future work. On her present course, it will only grow in even more formidable ways.
John Henry Waddell is an eminent Arizona sculptor and painter
“High Desert Blooms” Oil, 3’ x 4’, 2000, Private Collection
Diane J. Hinsvark Eide: an Appreciation by Dr. Lindsay J. Twa, Associate Professor of Art, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD Diane J. Hinsvark Eide’s oil painting, Apples with Blue Wall, renders exactly what her title announces. Eide’s careful naturalism draws the viewer in through the simple pleasure of appreciating the artist’s ability to render the world convincingly—in this instance, an oval table covered “Apples with Blue Wall” Oil, 18” x 24”, 2007 with a white linen tablecloth, upon which are placed four gloriously red apples and their paper wrappers. The longer one lingers within the image, however, the more one can appreciate that this is a thoroughly constructed reality. The intense reds provide stark visual accents that counter the mellow subtlety of the cool neutral tones of the crumpled white paper against the creamy white tablecloth, with all framed against the warm tones of the dark background. The asymmetrical placement of the apples and the strong form of the curving table provide visual arcs that move the eye around the painting. The sharply defined apples give way to the play of jagged shadows and textures of the wrappers that connect the forms on the table. The softly modeled folds of the tablecloth offer a textural counterpoint, out of which emerges Eide’s signature, returning us to the surface of the canvas and reminding us that the pleasure of this viewing is at the hand of the artist. We celebrate in the skill, the care, and the lifetime of practice that coalesces in the arrival of this image. Diane J. Hinsvark Eide is a contemporary classicist—formal and traditional in her artwork in the best sense of the word. She values the history and traditions of painting, and exploits the fullest potential of her media through careful study and methodical, relentless work. Eide received her early training at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, where she studied with the lions of that art department, Ogden Dalrymple and Palmer Eide (who would become her uncle-in-law). These two artists were formalists
at heart, who also encouraged and incorporated the art world’s modernisms into their practice and teachings. They privileged the simplification of forms and a “truth-to-material” philosophy, encouraging each student to embrace the distinct properties and expressive potential of each medium. As such, Hinsvark Eide was receptive to the structures of form, the long-standing traditions of subject and composition, and the craftsmanship of paint-handling techniques, but she was also responsive to modernist developments. Eide earned a B.A. in art and German, with a minor in music from Augustana in 1958, graduating magna cum laude. Eide continued graduate work in painting at the University of Denver from 1967-1969, where she also continued her studies in pipe organ. She completed an M.A. at Northern Arizona University in 1997. Like many artists whose seminal development occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, Eide went through a period of painting in the style of Abstract Expressionism. She was particularly encouraged to explore and exploit the techniques of abstraction by her study with Vance Kirkland (1904-1981), the founding director of the Art School at the University of Denver. Eide has produced many successful paintings through the visual language of nonobjective abstraction— work with no ostensible “Ascendance” Acrylic, 3’ x 4’, 1999 subject matter beyond the artist’s brushstrokes and the “event” she renders on the canvas. And although she sometimes returns to this style, Abstract Expressionism is just one more tool in her arsenal, rather than the only vehicle for expressing her creative drive. In many ways, however, Eide needed her mastery of Abstract Expressionism to become an exceptional artist of high naturalism. Through perspective, foreshortening, and careful modeling, Eide creates forms that convincingly occupy space and carry weight. To express an object, however, is more than just its optical reality. Her subject matter, be it still lifes, landscapes, or her main love, the human figure, are vehicles for expressing the sensuality of light rendered in brushstrokes and luminous layers of paint. Her understanding of how to organize the entire canvas to encourage the viewer to engage with the full picture, and how the revealed brushstroke can create energy and interest are informed by techniques of abstraction. Eide’s 2005 oil painting Seated Figure with Cat is an example where Eide’s naturalism is clearly activated by the tools of Abstract Expressionism. Here, what could have become a static study of a seated figure on a couch becomes an embodiment of painterly movement through leading lines and
tonal contrasts. The stark highlights and deep shadows, paired with strategically placed horizontal brushstrokes activate the composition and demand that the viewer move across and through the canvas, rather than focus only on the large-scale figure. Careful contour lines, especially the verticals and angles of the figure and couch provide visual punctuation, working with and often countering the image’s strong horizontals. For example, the upright lines of the model’s knee and “Seated Figure with Cat” 2’ x 3’, 2005 the couch cushions demarcate a compositional square within the canvas and direct the eye to the form of the resting cat, who at once melds with the activated brushwork of the background and occupies space alongside the figure. Eide’s mastery of the properties of color is also evident as shocks of intense reds and blues actually coalesce into negative spaces and figural elements that the viewer can “read” as both forms in space and brushstrokes. Eide is also a self-taught watercolor artist. Augustana professor Palmer Eide was an advocate for traditional “transparent watercolor”, where the artist uses only the white of the paper, rather than opaque white paint, for highlights and builds forms through the layering of the translucent pigments. Although Diane Eide did not take up the serious study of watercolor until after Augustana, Palmer Eide’s “truth-to-materials” philosophy continued to inspire her to adhere to the rigours of the tradition of transparent watercolor. Eide’s work in watercolors accelerated with her experiences at Northern Arizona University and the inspiration of Arizona’s High Desert landscape, where the quality of the light seemed to demand rendering in watercolor. She is now an award-winning, juried “Figure with Butterfly” Watercolor, 34” x 28” 2004, Private Collection member of the Northern Ari-
zona Watercolor Society. Yet Eide would be the first to tell you that she is primarily an oil painter at heart and she would probably choose to paint with this medium year-round if she could. Nevertheless, she enjoys the challenge of transparent watercolor and her results are confident in her exploitation of the medium. The 2004 watercolor, Figure with Butterfly, is a great example of Eide’s sensitive tonal washes and luminous highlights. Eide’s impressive and ranging body of work is a testament to her relentless drive to create. She did not, however, have the luxury of dedicating herself solely to her own work throughout her career. Eide taught in the Denver public schools from 1965-1969, and the Flagstaff public schools from 19821996. Her teaching did help to solidify her practice; after all, she felt that she also needed to be able to solve the design prob“Large Pears on Bunched Cloth” Oil, 2’ x 4’, 2010 lems that she assigned to her students. From 1976-1997 Eide also taught drawing and art education at Northern Arizona University. As a student and teacher in the program at Northern Arizona University, Eide found rich interactions with the campus’s faculty and visiting artists. She found Richard E. Beasley (1934-1992), a talented designer, painter and calligrapher, to be inspiring and helpful in both painting techniques and design concepts. She found painter and illustrator David Christiana, who teaches at the University of
“Golden Midwest Fields” Oil, 2’ x 3’, 2013
“View of Jerome“ oil 3' x4', 2001
Arizona, to also be influential. Eide’s paintings, however, have always been her own, and inspiration has never devolved into imitation.
In the end, we can celebrate an artist like Eide for encouraging our eyes to linger. The energetic quietude that exudes from a landscape like Golden Midwest Fields (oil on canvas, 2013) or a still life like Large Pears on Bunched Cloth (oil on canvas, 2010) can be an antidote to our hyper-paced, jump-cut, media-saturated world. Important things can still be said through seemingly unimportant subject matter. It is in the gridded composition that becomes the expansive space of plowed and farmed fields reaching to the horizon. It is in the tension of brilliant deep turquoise set against shocks of orange and reflected green on the warm yellow bodies of monumental pears. It is in the significance of a painting’s ability to ask, nay, demand of the viewer an attentive contemplation. Creativity is a process. For Eide, it is also a respect for craft and for the traditions of image making that have gone before. Creativity is not a luxury, but a literacy. The gift of an artist like Diane Eide is in showing us that it still has a place in our twenty-first-century world.
" Artist in the Verde River studio"
OIL PAINTINGS
“Three Unwrapped Apples” Oil, 2’ x 3’, 2003
“Bosc Pears” Oil, 24” x 27” Private Collection, 2004
“Red Apples with Shadows” Oil, 40 x 48”, 1989
“Peaches with Blue” Oil, 18” x 24”, 2009
“California Landscape, II” Oil, 2’ x 3, 2011
“High Desert Blooms” Oil, 3’ x 4’, 2000, Private Collection
“Figure with Scarf” Oil, 3’ x 2’, 2008
“Cowboy Reflecting” Oil, 3’ x 2’, 2004
“Four Large Pears on White” Oil, 3’ x4’ 1988
“Peaches on Folded Cloth” Oil, 16” x 20”, 2009
“Pears with White Pitcher” Oil, 16 x 20”, 2010
“Sunflowers with Pears” Oil, 3’ x 2’, 2009
"Artist sketching at the Verde River"
WATERCOLORS
“Winter, Norway” Watercolor, 22” x 29”,2010
“Hinsvark Home, Norway” Watercolor, 16” x 20”, 2002
“Norway Farm, Winter” Watercolor, 30” x 24”, 2009
“Midwest Farm, Winter” Watercolor, 1986
“Morning Cup of Coffee” Watercolor, 26” x 34”, 2012“Home from the Market” Watercolor, 16” x 23” 2013
“Home from the Market” Watercolor, 16” x 23” 2013
“Reclining Reader” Watercolor, 22” x 36”, 2011
“Figure in Mexican Chair” Watercolor, 28” x 22”, 2003
"The entrance gate to the Verde River high desert studio, home, and gallery"
PASTELS
“Girl with Blanket” Pastel, 48” x 36”, 1992
“Cacti Family” Pastel/Mixed Media, 34” x 28”, 1992
“Man with Bare Feet” Pastel, 48” x 36”, 1988
“Figure on Blue” Pastel, 26” x 32”, 2003
“Figure Study” Pastel 26” x 32”, 2003
“Figure with Blue Cloth” Pastel, 24” x 27”, 2004
"The artist studio with the high desert river landscape"
Diane J. Hinsvark Eide Curriculum Vitae Education: M.A., Northern Arizona University Graduate Study in Painting, University of Denver B.A., Art, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD
1997 1967-69 1958
Employment: Flagstaff Public Schools, Art Teacher Northern Arizona University, Drawing and Art ED Denver Public Schools, Art Teacher
1982-96 1976-97 1965-69
Exhibitions: Augustana College Art Gallery, Sioux Falls, SD Arizona Arts Alliance Northern Arizona Watercolor Society, various Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD E-G0 Gallery, Clarkdale, AZ No. Arizona Watercolor Society Juried Member East Bank Gallery, Sioux Falls, SD, Featured Artist Sedona Arts Festival, Featured Artist Cochise College, Two Person Exhibition Made in Clarkdale Augustana College, Exhibition with Palmer Eide NAU Art Museum and Galleries Flagstaff Symphony, Special Solo Exhibition Denver Art Museum, “Own Your Own” Juried Augustana College, “Alumni Invitational”
2013 2013 2001-2013 2010 2009 2004-2009 2005 2004 2003 2001-2013 1989 1979-97 1987 1966-67 1963
Private Galleries: Juddville Clay, Door County, WI Gallery 465, Sycamore Canyon, Clarkdale, AZ Gallery 527, Jerome, AZ Gallery 465, Sedona, AZ The Modern Hand, Tucson, AZ Star Gallery, Tucson, AZ Artists’ Gallery, Flagstaff, AZ
Collections: Academic, Corporate, Religious, and Private Travel and Study: Asia, Western and Eastern Europe
2006-2009 2004-2009 2005 2002-2004 2003 2003 1995-1996