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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: Dyno Wahl (208) 265-4554 |
THE FESTIVAL AT SANDPOINT ANNOUNCES DIANA MOSES BOTKIN AS 2011 POSTER ARTIST
May 5, 2011, Sandpoint, Idaho...Bonners Ferry, Idaho artist Diana Moses Botkin has been selected to create the original artwork for the 2011 Festival at Sandpoint fine art poster. Known for her oil paintings of landscapes and the human form, Moses Botkin was chosen by a committee made up of the Festival’s past poster artists, and the annou
ncement was made last Friday night at the Festival’s Annual Wine Tasting, Dinner & Auction.
“What a wonderful surprise to get the call from Festival Director, Dyno Wahl, telling me I’d been chosen as Festival poster artist for 2011,” says Diana Moses Botkin.”I feel very blessed to have been picked by my fellow artists and am honored to able to contribute in this way to the Festival and our community.”
Diana is an award-winning painter, specializing in regional landscapes and figurative works. “I’ve been inspired through the years by the figure, faces, flowers, clouds and a host of subjects in God’s beautiful creation,” she reveals. “Since my family and I moved to north Idaho in 1997, I have been inspired by the natural beauty of this area. What an amazing place this is! There are countless opportunities to see enchanting snowcapped mountains, sparkling lakes, dazzling cliffs, and exquisite light.”
As it happens, the light is actually what drew her to landscape painting when she moved here. Moses Botkin is a native Oklahoman, transplanted to Idaho in 1997 for her husband’s job. She primarily painted figurative and still life images before the move. The artist remembers arriving in February, 1997, the winter which locals named “The Big Snow”. She recalls, “We had rented a place north of Bonners Ferry, sight unseen, and the plowed driveway had snow walls on either side several feet high. On walks in our snowshoes in neighboring fields, we simply stepped over the fences, as the snow pack was up to the fence line. I’d never seen anything like that.”
“I had also not seen anything like the light here. Because of our northern latitude in Idaho, there is more of the red spectrum in the evening and morning light, due to the more dramatic angle of the sun. Even though I had previously not been a landscape painter, I had to try and capture that beautiful rosy glow on the snowy mountains and clouds.”
Diana has been making art since childhood and recalls, “One of my earliest art memories is an Oklahoma summer day, scribbling on large sheets of paper bigger than I was. I was three or four years old. I still remember lying on the porch drawing with crayons on that huge paper my dad had brought home. I can feel the cool concrete under my bare tummy even now! I think my dad might’ve taken a picture or two of my sister and me then. Daddy always shot a lot of photos.”
Diana’s artist father picked “D” names for his three children. “We were the 3-Ds,” Diana remembers, “perfect for children of a sculptor.” Additionally, her father had stacks of art books available in their home and supplied art materials with which to experiment, which fed her desire to draw and paint. And growing up around her father’s sculptures and paintings gave her first-hand appreciation for art.
Having come through the influence of the Abstract Expressionists at the University of Oklahoma in the early 1970’s, Diana developed her own realism using dramatic compositions and traditional methods and materials. “At the time I was in school at OU, there was very little emphasis on realism, or instruction in archival working methods. Most of the professors and students were painting and sculpting non-representationally. I was the closet realist.” To study the figure, the artist enrolled in many life drawing sessions. And to learn how use oil paints, she read Ralph Mayer’s The Artist’s Handbook.
Years spent earning a living as a commercial artist served to solidify her desire to create archival artwork with a lasting visual impact. When she married and began having children, she was at home caring for family and originating ideas which have become the basis for a continuing body of work.
Moses Botkin has completed large oil paintings as well as miniature pieces. Her art career has encompassed opportunities in commercial art, custom murals, portrait painting, teaching, and writing about art. Her work has been reproduced on book covers, in calendars, and in books. Additionally, she is a contributing editor for Professional Artist Magazine.
Diana’s original oil paintings can be seen in north Idaho at Pend Oreille Arts Council exhibits and Sandpoint ArtWalk. Area gallery representation is by Entree Gallery in Priest Lake, Idaho and Outskirts Gallery in Hope, Idaho.
Moses Botkin’s work has been accepted to Oil Painters of America 20th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils, opening June 10 at Devin Galleries in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. “This is another huge honor for me,” the artist shares. “Competition for the OPA shows is tough. I’m delighted to be represented in this exhibit.”
Diana’s art has also been honored with regional and national awards, museum and corporate purchases, and numerous private commissions. Collectors include Evansville Museum of Arts and Science in Evansville Indiana, St. Peter Hospital Clinic in Olympia Washington, Bristol-Myers Pharmaceutical Corporation in Evansville, Oklahoma Allergy Clinic in Oklahoma City, Women’s Health Center in Salem Oregon, Fred Jones Museum of Art in Norman Oklahoma, and others.
Additionally, Moses Botkin is active in the Daily Painting art movement and shares her work regularly online at her website, blog, and at DailyPainters.com where she sells her art to collectors worldwide. A wife, mother and grandmother, she currently lives and works in north Idaho.
The Festival will unveil Diana’s original artwork at the much anticipated Poster Unveiling event on July 14th at Dover Bay to kick off the Festival’s 29th annual summer concert series set for August 4-14, 2011 at Memorial Field in Sandpoint. The original artwork will be displayed on posters and other Festival memorabilia during the season, and will be auctioned off to benefit the non-profit arts organization. For more information regarding the Festival at Sandpoint and this year’s poster artist, visit www.FestivalatSandpoint.com. The artist’s website is www.DianaMosesBotkin.com .