Date: Fri 22-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-9

Quick Words:

Diane-Dutchick-Burr-Ely-artist

Full Text:

(feature on Newtown artist Diane Dutchick, 3/22/96)

Diane Dutchick: One Artist, Two Shows

(with cut, dropquote)

By Shannon Hicks

Diane Dutchick is one of those rare art teachers who not only teaches art, but

also practices it. A teacher for seventh and eighth grade students at Newtown

Middle School three days a week, Diane brings her love of art into the

classroom when she isn't busy expressing herself through her paintbrushes or

drawing at her studio, located in New Haven's Erector Square. A full-time

artist, Diane's works can be seen in two juried shows this month.

Visitors to the 67th Annual CT Women Artists Show, this year at the John Slade

Ely House in New Haven, can view a drawing on paper by Diane entitled "Situs,"

while those making the sojourn to The Burr Homestead Art Exhibition in

Fairfield will have the opportunity to be impressed by two of Diane's

paintings on paper and a third on linen.

Both shows were extremely competitive for any artist hoping to be included. In

curating the Burr Homestead show, for instance, over 1,200 slides were

submitted. The entries were pared to a final presentation of 70 works,

representing 26 artists.

"What is interesting in this year's show is our juror chose such a wide style

in variety," says Connecticut Women Artists, Inc. president Kate Colpitts. The

CWA has been sponsoring the show since its inception. The organization, a

200-member artist group (members must have been accepted into at least three

juried shows before membership will be considered) was begun in the 1930s as

an organization of women interested in promoting the arts. Initiated in

association with the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, the CWA saw a need to

promote female artists in a time when women were not given much space to

exhibit their artworks.

"[Our juror] chose over 100 pieces of work, in all media and styles, from

representational to abstract," Ms Colpitts continued, "and somehow it all came

together."

Linda Ayres was the juror for this year's CWA Show, which will hang at the

John Slade Ely House in New Haven through the end of the month. Ms Ayres was

the former director of museum programs for the National Endowment of the Arts

in Washington, DC.

CWA's annual show changes venues annually; next year it will be at the

University of Hartford's art gallery, last year it was at the New Britain

Museum of American Art.

This is the second time Diane Dutchick has been included in the CWA show. For

this year's exhibit, she chose a drawing that was the final in a series she

did on chairs, completed late last year. Chairs appear in a number of Diane's

works; she has seen different shapes, like the outline of a boat's hull,

reappear in her works during the years.

"You know what's interesting, and I've found this over the years... I go back

to certain shapes," she admitted recently.

Oil paintings by Diane adorn the beautiful Newtown house she shares with her

husband, George, and their son, Peter. A sophomore at Newtown High School,

Peter, his mother says, shows a lot of his own artistic side, but is also into

baseball and football ("He's a real cross," Diane says of her multi-interest

son.)

"This is true of a lot of artists. I've read this and I see it as I keep going

back [in my own work]. There's a particular shape that keeps cropping up."

The boat shape is a perfect example of this theory. Diane has works from a

series she did a few years ago where she specifically worked to get the shape

of a boat to show, and other works in her collection where the boat shape

resurrects years later without consciously trying.

In the foyer of the Dutchick home is an oil on unstretched linen, a fabulous

painting Diane did of a nude sitting on a chair (one of those recurring

shapes), with Diane's dog Honey, another repeating subject, at the figure's

feet. The brilliant colors reach out to the viewer's eye, and the unstretched

linen gives the work a different, "bumpier" texture than a stretched piece

would achieve.

This enchanting work, "Studio Blues," is one of three Diane has in the Burr

Homestead show.

Susan Buckley co-chaired the Burr Homestead show, now in its final weeks of

preparation. A member of the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County, the

sponsoring organization for the Burr show, Mrs Buckley is excited works by

Diane Dutchick will grace the walls of the Homestead show.

"She's very talented," Mrs Buckley offered. "She's a very popular artist;.

she's one of the best oil painters in the area.

"We're really excited to have her in our show." The Junior League has been

sponsoring the show, open to artists across the state, for four years.

"I love the effect of linen," Diane said last week, walking through her home

and pointing out pieces of her art from different points of her career. Diane

enjoys working on paper, linen, even mylar, a plastic.

"I like to experiment on different things," she added. "I've been working on

paper for three or four years, and I think I'm ready to get back to canvas."

It must be this love of art and experimentation that has allowed Diane so much

success with her work during her career. Not only is the public lucky in that

Diane's works have been accepted into so many shows over the course of the

past two decades, but her middle school students are learning something from a

teacher who loves her job.

"I like part-time teaching because it allows me to continue to create my art,"

Diane Dutchick says, "while giving me contact with the students."

The Burr Homestead Art Exhibition opens Friday, March 29, and continues

through Sunday, March 31. The Homestead is at 739 Old Post Road in Fairfield;

telephone 259-9995 for information. The 67th Annual CWA Artists Open Juried

Exhibition is at the John Slade Ely House, 51 Trumbull Street in New Haven;

telephone 624-8055. This show will remain on view until March 31.