BIO
Diane Kleiss Silver City , NM
Diane Kleiss was born in an Iowa Heartland farming community . A BFA in painting , a minor in art history and a K-12 teaching degree were acquired at the University of Minnesota , Duluth . She has taught art in public schools , in her studio , and at several art centers . Her Midwest life was surrounded by , and living from , nature ’ s bounty and all its inconsistencies . In the following years living in the Northern woods of Minnesota and then the SW desert have continuously kept her walking through nature ’ s door .
After working for many years in oil , acrylic and clay , in 2006 she turned to painting and sculpting with a beeswax medium . A substance harvested from the land , along with the use of nature ’ s detritus , gives her canvases a clear intent to draw the viewer ’ s attention to our environment with an accent on the man-made stresses to our eco system .
She has exhibited her work is several galleries around the country including solo exhibits , most recently at the Contreras Gallery in Tucson , AZ , March , 2014 . Her work has received several awards and was a featured artist in the national Encaustic Arts Magazine and in two nationally published encaustic books . She is represented by the SEEDBOAT GALLERY in Silver City , NM
www . seedboartgallery . com and the ENCAUSTIC ART INSTITUTE in Santa Fe , NM
www . eainm . com