Born in Dallas in 1945, Hall currently lives in San Francisco. She studied art at Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans and received her M.F.A. from the Hoffberger School of Painting at The Maryland Institute of Art. For over two decades she has been featured in more than two dozen solo and group exhibitions, primarily in New York and California. During the 1970s, Hall was a part of T.R.Uthco, a multi-media performance art collective based in San Francisco.
In her contemporary work, Hall paints atmospheric portrayals of the natural world such as cloud-filled skies and horizon-lined seas. Light, atmosphere, and changing weather patterns are used to explore notions of time, movement and the psychology of perception. In addition to her continued exploration of these themes, Hall, an avid birdwatcher, has painted delicate, beautiful renderings of hummingbirds and goldfinches in their natural, colorful habitat of flowers and brush. Displayed against blurred backdrops, Hall's work relates to photography in its use of varying degrees of sharp and soft focus. In these paintings there are no edges, there is constant movement and light defines the forms. These works do not attempt merely to imitate nature, but rather to communicate the artist's interest in the collision and impact between herself and the natural world.
Some information courtesy of John Berggruen Gallery.
A painting's squared-off bloom of apprehending,
Ordinary, caught, aligned, benign,
Neither literal nor not, and not a mirror, after all.
—Bill Berkson on Diane Andrews Hall
Hummingbird in Salvia presents a dreamlike scene wherein forms take on a fluid, edgeless quality, as if possessed by a liquid force. Hall, in her ethereal sensibility, maintains a grasp on figurative realism while allowing room for fluid expression. Her composition utilizes a photographic element of focus-and lack thereof-to question its viewer's perception of the natural world. At the center of it all flutters the weightless hummingbird, as elegant and precise in miniscule detail as the surrounding stems. Hall's subdued palette joins cool earth tones with brilliant blues and purples, each flower appearing lustrous and gem-like by way of color and rendering. On display here is the artist's technical mastery of light and its effects, which allow her to locate and capture specific moments in time and space.
James Graham and Sons, New York (label verso)
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
Trustee of the Bankruptcy Estate of Halsey McLean Minor
James Graham and Sons and John Berggruen Gallery, 2006, Diane Andrews Hall, February 3-March 11, 2006, Graham Gallery, New York, NY; April 2006, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA., ex. cat., illustrated p. 19.