"Floating Tulips," by Diane Partee Romeo

Brentwood resident began art career while between jobs, kids in school

Brentwood Home Page news reports
Brentwood resident Diane Partee Romeo began drawing, watercolor and pastel classes while she was in between jobs, and now she also works with mixed media collage including fabrics.

Her artwork will be on display through January at the Friends of the Brentwood Library art gallery open to the public during regular library hours. The Brentwood Library, 8109 Concord Road, is open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

A Nashville native, Romeo now works as an independent sales consultant and considers her passion for her art as “my other life”!

“Basically I paint what I like, what intrigues me, or something I’d like to see hanging in my own home,” she said. “I love to try something different, just to see if I can do it.”

Romeo began drawing, watercolor and pastel classes at North Houston Community College when she was between jobs while living in Houston. She was initially curious to see if she could really produce something worthwhile.

After her son and daughter were in school and she had some free time,  Romeo continued watercolor classes and watermedia collage workshops with Lynda Lyle Tate of Madison Avenue Art Gallery in Germantown, Tenn.

“Other than that, I’m self-taught and love to experiment,” she said.

Romeo has shown pieces at several book and gift shops and restaurants in Nashville and Brentwood; exhibited at Vanderbilt‘s University Club; and was chosen for the juried show at the Webb School Art and Craft Show in Bell Buckle, Tenn.

“I prefer the high contrast possible in what I consider non-traditional watercolor and pastel and color pencil, concentrating on still lifes, florals and vignettes,” she said.

“I also work with mixed media collage, using art papers or hand-painted papers or sometimes pieces of ‘failed paintings,’ occasionally found objects, often adding whimsical details.”

In creating collage in fine fabric, Romeo specializes in angels with hand-painted faces and hands, which she also designs on commission.  Her angels will be on display in the glass cases at the Brentwood Library in November-December 2012.