Painter Sean Diediker calls the Southwest home, and always will. His new body of work, containing portraits, still life and landscape pieces, exhibited at Blue Rain Gallery starting March 1, is inspired by his time in the Southwest and his many travels—he currently hosts an art-related travel show airing nationwide via PBS, Canvasing the World.
What makes Diediker’s work distinctive and special is his use of marks “that suggest an image but in the end are still discernibly paint,” he notes. “While I enjoy rendering a subject, I have little interest in rendering it into mark-less plastic oblivion. Give me the evidence of the build, with paint as the mortar.”
His Quiet Place, oil on canvas panel, 35 x 39½"
The artist would also like to believe that his work lives in that space between naturalism and impressionism. “However, in [this] most recent series, I leaned more toward impressionism, which better suited the concept,” he says. “The overall objective was to convey those solitary and often sacred moments we all have—moments that evoke reflection and truly belong to the individual within their own environment.”
Under the Turquoise Clouds, oil on canvas panel, 23½ x 23¾"
Show works like End of Trail, depicting a cowboy atop his trusty steed, standing among colorful foliage and a clouded sky, epitomizes these “sacred” and “solitary” moments. “I love to ride horses,” the artist explains. “I round up about 200 head of cattle every year up in eastern Oregon at a friend’s ranch. I don’t consider myself a bona fide cowboy, but during the round-ups I certainly enjoy pretending to be one. For me, there’s an unspoken purity to pushing the bovine through mountain and sage. Once it’s all said and done, there’s always a quiet satisfaction watching the herd spread out to pasture. Not sure if that satisfaction stems from the labor or the landscape, or perhaps it’s simply the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of cowboys past that made this experience such an American icon.”
Buffalo, oil on canvas panel, 17¾ x 24¼"
We see a similar composition in show piece His Quiet Place, of a Native American man in a headdress, staring contemplatively towards an unseen horizon, and exemplifying the artist’s style and technique. “For me, composing a painting is similar to solving a puzzle,” says Diediker. “Taking a variety of elements that I’m interested in, then trying to arrange them in a harmonious and visually appealing way all without compromising the initial concept. This is the most challenging yet rewarding part and it takes me down a multitude of rabbit holes which are often times a departure from the initial vision, but still work. His Quiet Place is a good example of this process anchored primarily around a face from an old turn of the century photograph. I was hoping to create a more ethereal environment rather than a specific recognizable location.”
End of Trail, oil on canvas panel, 25 x 23½"
Overall, Diediker celebrates the West and all its splendor. “The raw skeletal beauty of it never ceases to amaze me, and it’s clear that I’m not alone in thinking this as I look to painters like Maynard Dixon and many of the early Taos artists,” he says. “I love the way they celebrated the West. I try to do the same in my own modest way.”
The new collection of around 12 paintings will hang at Blue Rain’s Durango, Colorado, location and opens with a reception on Friday, March 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. The show will close March 15. —
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