Last week I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon in the studio of Charlotte artist Diane Hughes. As a photographer and fine artist, Diane finds inspiration in trees, landscapes, and raw materials gathered from nature. Though her works often begin life as a photograph, the end result more closely resembles a painting, with color and texture applied to the image layer upon layer until the desired effect is achieved. There is a darkly romantic aspect to Diane’s work that I find very intriguing. The shadowy and sepia tones that she applies using natural dyes and colorants create a brooding and mysterious effect that, to me, evokes the imagery of 19th century English literature. They are landscapes that Catherine and Heathcliff might have glimpsed through the wavy-paned glass of their farmhouse at Wuthering Heights:
“Fallen” by Diane Hughes
“Camellia” by Diane Hughes
Although Diane’s roots are in commercial and fine art photography, she has been working to develop her collection of mixed media art for the past six years. It was the happy accident of some beet juice splashing across a photo that inspired Diane to begin experimenting with natural colorants extracted from plants and berries. After mounting her photos on plywood, she adds up to 30 layers of different pigments and color washes before sealing each piece with varnish and beeswax.
“Olive” by Diane Hughes
“Rosemary” by Diane Hughes
Each piece Diane creates is one-of-a-kind, and the experimental nature of her process leads to subtle variations from one work to the next. In fact, she says she could probably not reproduce the same piece twice even if she tried! To see more work from this very talented artist, visit MoNA Gallery in Plaza Midwood, DOMA Gallery in South End, or visit Diane’s website here.
Diane Hughes in her Plaza Midwood studio