by Jerry Slayton
Introduction
This month, Art Spark Texas would like to recognize artist Nada Diwan as our Artist of the Month. Nada has led a rich life in the arts and sciences, immigrating to the US for a better quality of life, raising two children along the way, and now grand-mothering five. And so we sat down last week to catchup on her art and life.
Nada, now in retirement, has the time to refocus her energies on a second career as an artist. But, in truth, she has always maintained her career as an artist.
“ I have been painting since childhood. Encouraged by my family members and friends, I loved drawing in black and white and received many awards thru out my school years. Growing up my parents would take us to visit many museums with classic art. I was fascinated by the beautiful classical portraits and by impressionistic art. At this time I was mainly drawing with pencils and charcoal.”
Nada grew up in the beautiful Mediterranean setting of Lebanon, during it’s Golden Age, 1950s-mid 70s. She attended French schools where she excelled in Mathematics and the Arts. Her parents noticed her artistic expression at an early age and enrolled her in classes outside of school. In our chat, she recalled how she wasn’t a talkative child, but she loved to draw, in particular portraits. She enjoyed the technical aspects of drawing, refining forms in a realistic style, which occasionally landed her in trouble as she was caught correcting her classmates drawing during a test. It was through drawing that Nada first learned to see as an artist, and through drawing she received praise and recognition from the adults around her.
“ This was good but not enough, so I thought to add some colors to my drawings in order to add more interest and life to them. So I picked up oil paint, pastels and acrylics colors.”
Later in life, while attend the American University in Beirut for Pharamacy, Nada continued with to refine her artistic skills by incorporating more mediums into her skills set. Color now began to push her work, rather than just form. She also expanded her subject matter to incorporate landscapes and architectural works, along with portraits.
“ Later I discovered that I can add even more interest by adding more texture to my paintings using pastes, gels and mediums mixed with colors. That attracted many customers.”
When Nada moved to Austin in the late 1980’s she was moving for all the opportunities that America offered to her pharmacy career, but also her artistic career. Upon arrival she immediately enrolled in portrait classes with Charlene Eppright where she honed facial proportion and began drawing with pastels. This opened her up to commissions in pastel and oils, work that she continues to this day.
“ My favorite thing now is painting textured art on wood pieces. And custom acrylic portraits of people and pets on canvas or wood.”
Nada’s current work is a combination of all the skills she has accumulated over the years, and new experiments. Portraits, Landscapes, Architectural and Botanical paintings all dawn her website. In her most recent series she uses molding paste and thick impasto acrylics to almost sculpt her paintings. The material extends off the surface creating a low relief picture that is visceral to look at.
“ My advice to any artist is to keep painting because art is a great way to express our feelings and we must use this gift from God to create a unique piece for people to feel and admire.”
To me, Nada’s work is a reflection of her artistic pursuits throughout her life. She has and will continue to explore her surroundings through her work, and so there is a journey. And thankfully, we are now all along that journey with her. Thank you for sharing your work, Nada, and we can’t wait to see what comes next.