Diane Radel is on fire. Figuratively, that is. The Tampa Bay artist has work in four shows over the next two months: one in Dunedin, one in Tampa, one in Largo, and one in St. Petersburg. No matter where you live in the Tampa Bay area, there’s an art show featuring Radel’s paintings in your neighborhood this winter.
It’s a lot of success, all at once, for the emerging artist. Radel only got serious about art a year ago. She had just turned 60, and she signed up for the only art class at the Dunedin Fine Art Center that fit into her schedule. It was Lorraine Potocki’s abstract expressionism class. Before taking the class, Radel says, “Abstract expressionism was not even on my radar.”
Radel just wanted to “capture the exquisite beauty and patterns found in nature,” she tells us. Now she takes nature’s patterns as inspiration for her abstract art.
Radel’s latest project, Turtle Track Art, was inspired by a visit to Melbourne Beach.
“Whenever I visit my daughter and grandchildren in Melbourne Beach, we take a midnight turtle stroll across the sands,” she says, “One night, blanketed by inky darkness, we stood motionless as a mama loggerhead sea turtle began her slow ascent from the water. Each movement left intricate traces and swirls in the sands as she followed the call to lay her eggs exactly where she was born. Her tracks represented a journey of hundreds of millions of years. Yet they would be gone by the next day, buffeted by wind, water, and man. I was overwhelmed by the need to document that she was there at that incredible moment. By following and filling in the fin patterns with abstract colors and textures — and noting the day and time of each track — I wanted to capture both the fragility of life and its resilient connectedness.”
Radel debuts 11 paintings from her Turtle Track Art series at Stirling Art Studios in downtown Dunedin this month. These are displayed alongside work from her instructor, Lorraine Potocki, and works from Sharon Appler, Sally Maraffi, Kathy Thomas and Patricia O’Malley McEntire. The show, aptly titled “Six Chix,” will be up through the month of January.
Radel is also part of a Fringe Art Show at Victory Coffee in Tampa’s Channelside neighborhood this winter/spring. Here her paintings are hung alongside work from local printmaker Judy Bales.
The Professional Association of Visual Artists is organizing a solo show for Radel at the Long Center in Largo this January. And in St. Pete, Radel will be live painting at My Favorite Art Place for two days in February. So yeah, Diane Radel is all over Tampa Bay, and we’ve got the deets.
Six Chix | Stirling Art Studios and Gallery, 730 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Dunedin | Through January: Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. | 727-366-6477 | stirlingartstudios.com
Fringe Art Show at Victory Coffee, featuring Diane V. Radel and Judy Bales | Victory Coffee, 101 N. 12th St. Unit 101, Tampa | Through Apr. 16: Mon.-Fri., 6 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 7 a.m.-6 p.m. | 813-223-9539 | victorycoffeetampa.com
PAVA exhibit | Clearwater Aging Well Center @Long Center, 1501 N. Belcher Rd., Largo | Opens Jan 18: Mon.-Thurs., 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sat., 9 a.m.-1 p.m. | 727-724-3070 | PAVA exhibit
Paintings by Diane Radel | My Favorite Art Place @the Sundial, 167 2nd Avenue North, St. Petersburg | Feb. 13-20 (with Radel live painting Feb. 16-17): Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun., 12 p.m.-6 p.m. | 727-726-7411 | myfavoriteartplace.com
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