CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The Planters Bank Peg Harvill Gallery of the Customs House Museum is full of nostalgia this August.
The exhibit Paintings and Ponderings fills the room with vintage toys, cars, and neon signs. Artist Diane Davich Craig works in a contemporary realistic style, spending around 200 hours on each piece of work. The compositions are cropped close views, letting the onlooker feel like they are a part of the scene. In paintings such as Port in the Storm the audience has a sense of gazing upward to the top of the old theater roof. With paintings like Politics 101, feature classic children’s toys, featuring the combination of Mr. Bill and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Diane wants to let the viewer re-experience their childlike imagination that they had when playing with their toys
The artist says of her work “Some of my favorite subjects are neon signs, storefronts, nostalgic objects and toys. When incorporating toys or objects into my paintings my intention is to bring the inanimate toy into real life filled with thoughts and feelings equal to a human portrait. By painting so realistically I help the viewer to see all the beauty inherent in the object and release any focus on the artist’s hand.”
Diane was awarded First prize winner in Still Life in 2014 by Artist’s Magazine for “Clyde’s Ride”. Another of her still life paintings “Your Fan” also received the title of Finalist in the same competition. She was chosen to exhibit in the 2013 International Guild of Realism show at the Tempe Arts Center of Arizona in 2013 and in the International Guild of Realism show at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston November in 2014. Diane’s paintings are represented by Gallery 202 in Franklin, TN and J. A. Willy Gallery of Naples, FL.
Paintings and Ponderings will be on exhibit through August 30th and is sponsored in part by Nashville Arts Magazine. Diane will be in the gallery during the museum’s First Thursday Art Walk from 5pm to 8pm. Located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets, the Customs House Museum is the second largest general museum in Tennessee. For more information on above events contact Terri Jordan, Exhibits Curator, at 931-648-5780 or terri@customshousemuseum.org.