Diane F Palley

About

Art has been part of my life since age 11. I call myself “Fearless” because I am always experimenting, learning, and asking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” My dream is to be recognized as an important artist while I am alive and to have as many people as possible enjoy my creations. My early work began with block prints, hand-rubbed onto rice paper, and soon led to my first large order from a dealer. In college, another student introduced me to traditional Batik, and I loved discovering how to bring warm and cool colors together on fabric. Those works were accepted into juried fine art shows, won awards, and sold through an agent. Batik led me to watercolor, where I fell in love with transparent layers of color. Later I learned to paint with soft pastels, acrylics, and oils. For decades, I chose the medium that best served each idea and painted “pretty pictures” — until 2026. Until 2026, I usually began each piece with the end in mind. Discovering Gelli Prints and Mixed Media changed that. Now I build from a basic print with collage papers, cord, plastic, clock parts, metal, found objects, and sometimes colored pens. The process feels free and full of discovery, letting me explore ideas about time, people, life connections, and whatever else enters my mind. The longer you look at one of my mixed media pieces, the more you see — including, in one case, the lid from an overpriced iced tea that became part of the art. My greatest joy is sharing art with others. For 24 years, I taught watercolor painting on cruise lines, giving thousands of people a first taste of making art. Their paintings now hang on walls around the world. Today, I hope my own creations will do the same