Diane Detalle

French-born artist Diane Detalle has very unique conceptions about the creative process. A trader-turned artist, Detalle now lives and paints out of an elegant Tribeca loft whose walls are adorned with her sizable canvases. Sitting in her office, she effortlessly describes her paintings with a far-away look in her eyes, whimsically re-creating their emergence.

With a range of up to 4 years to finish and a base of collectors reaching Buenos Aires, Paris, London, and Toronto, Detalle is an emerging talent that is being recognized the world over. SPREAD ArtCulture visited her studio for a tour and a synopsis of her work, influences, and background.

SPREAD ArtCulture: Tell us about your creative process.

Diane Detalle: I see a specific color or texture and I will think about it and be a part of a visual stage. When I go into an apartment or a gallery or museum, I always visualize something on all sides. The process is I go to an art store and buy my materials. I choose the texture, I choose the colors, I choose the material, then I bring it here [the studio] and I start playing with it. It’s like a game for me. I start mixing it, and it’s a very strange thing how it comes together in its own way and what I seek the most in my art is balance. I’m all about the balance. I do big canvases and I always try to figure out the balance. Working on the floor, it gives me the opportunity to be over the work, which gives me more perspective. After that, I look into the texture: am I going to use the knife or am I going to drip? I don’t know. It’s a bit like a love story, I walk with it. It starts with me and finishes with the canvas.

I usually create when I’m bored; I like being a risk taker. It’s my calling to do what I want and to create. It’s a conversation with yourself. I start something and then go back to it. It goes in different directions. You can get frustrated. It starts drying and you don’t want it to, so you have to start creating something else. Colors inspire me also.

SAC: What kind of story does a blank canvas tell you when you sit down with it?

DD: It’s usually very soft. It’s a very unique moment that I’ve never experienced in anything else. It’s a bliss. The creation process keeps going, even when the canvas doesn’t react the way that I want. It’s a blind journey and as I’m walking through it, it’s only good discoveries. Some take years to complete. It’s frustrating, as it can be in any love story.

On the floor of Diane Detalle's Tribeca Studio

SAC: What is your background prior to becoming an artist?

DD: Painting is in my family. My grandfather painted, as did my father. We always had easels and canvases around. I really started contemplating painting when I moved to New York. I was a banker in London, then moved to New York, where I worked on the trading floor. I had a big apartment with big, white walls and no real money to buy art and I kept visiting galleries and thinking, “I could do this.” I went to buy some paint on Canal Street and a big canvas.

This memory came to me lately: when I was a child, my mother had a friend who was an art dealer. he had this massive canvas, which was not usual at the time to have in your house. Even in her kitchen she had a huge canvas. I was so intrigued by it. I thought it was incredibly magical. It was like having a big window. I always thought that one day I would have big paintings like that. It was really a goal I’ve always had.

SAC: Who are some of your influencers?

DD: I’ve been compared to Pollock, but I’ve not copied him. I was frustrated and started dripping the paint and it just happened, and it was cool. He moves me a lot. When I visit his room at the MoMA, I’m definitely moved. I love Rothko and Goya, but at the same time, I’ve not a figurative person.

SAC: Do you do mostly spec pieces of do people commission your work?

DD: I’ve had both. Commission are difficult pieces for me. There’s always an expectation. Normally, it’s just between me and the canvas, but when someone’s expecting something, it’s different. Most pieces I sell are from the shows, where people come and call instantly fall in love with the works.

SAC: What do you want people to experience the first time they see your work?

DD: I want them to be moved. I want them to see some magic. If they’re buying it, I want them to take it home and live with it. It’s very personal and you have to look at it every day.

Diane Detalle