Pastellist Diane Ringwood brings her bright pastoral scenes to Benicia

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

“I LIKE TO USE lots and lots of color. That’s what really excites me about painting.”

Diane Ringwood, featured this month at the Benicia Plein Air Gallery, is currently the only pastel artist in the collective.

For the past 12 years Ringwood, using the chalk pastels on sanded paper, has been creating her work outside — and for almost as long has been explaining her work to onlookers.

“So many don’t understand what they are, and they say, ‘Is that chalk?’ and I try to be a pure pastellist and tell them that it is just pure pigment,” Ringwood said. “I’ve been told that’s the way I should describe it.”

However she describes it, the most striking aspect of Ringwood’s work is what she finds most striking about her subjects: color.

“When I look at something, it’s the color that I see first, not all the other shapes and things like that,” she said.

Her love of color in her art extends to the Wallace sanded paper she uses, which is usually not white. “I like the paper to show through,” she said. “Pink, hot pink, is my favorite color. I like the warmth of it.”

Sanded paper “makes a big difference,” Ringwood continued. “It has a grit on it. You can put water on turpenoids or things like that, and it doesn’t disintegrate. It has a lot of tooth, so it grabs the paste.”

Ringwood likes to paint hills, mountains and trees. Many of the pieces in her show feature lavender flowers from some of the vineyards in Sonoma County. “And whatever I capture the light on trees or hills, or clouds,” she said.

Though the Danville resident hasn’t painted much in the Benicia area, she said she plans to do more here.

“Benicia Plein Air Gallery is a new venture for me,” she said. She has been friends with artists like Dixie Mohan and Mike Dadasovich for years, which is how she found out about the gallery. “I used to paint with him outdoors. He was in the Benicia Plein Air Gallery.”

Being a part of art shows in the area as well as involved in other artists’ societies also gave Ringwood exposure to Benicia Plein Air.

“You get to know so many people over the years, in classes or groups that paint together, going to their openings … that’s how I became familiar with the Benicia Plein Air Gallery,” she said.

Now Benicia has has a chance to get familiar with Diane Ringwood. Her show runs through the end of October.

If You Go
Diane Ringwood’s pastel paintings will be featured through the month of October at Benica Plein Air Gallery, 307 First Street. A reception will be held Oct. 13 from 5-7 p.m.