Diane Reed Sawyer

I am a painter, and work both in soft pastel, and oil. I love to blur the line between abstraction and representation, in both pastel and oil using cold wax medium.

While these are different approaches, they both use pure pigment, whether it is held together with a simple binder or mixed with oil and cold wax.

I choose soft pastel for its immediacy, and the way it captures form and light. I start with an under painting, building the composition, and then defining shapes and adding layers of color. I work outside when I can, directly observing the landscape shift as the light changes.

Working with cold wax has opened up a new process of discovery for me. I love the resiliency it offers, layering, drawing and scraping back into the surface, and uncovering new ideas and ways to work.

I hold a BFA from the Boston Museum School and Tufts University, and have studied since then with many accomplished artists and teachers. Pastelists Liz Haywood Sullivan, Jeanne Rosier Smith, and Michele Poirier-Mozzone; oil painters Tim Hawkesworth, Jon Redmond, Margaret McQwethy, and Melinda Cootsona, as well as the founders of Cold Wax Academy— Rebecca Crowell, and Jerry McLaughlin. I have learned much from all of them!