Donicht Fine Art

Diane Donicht Vestin is a colored pencil and acrylic artist working in northern Minnesota. Her work is inspired by the natural beauty around her country home, everyday antique objects, and the ways in which inanimate pieces come together to form vast, imaginative worlds. Many of her still life pieces possess a dark, surreal quality enhanced by the gentle play of light on tarnished metal or the uncanny playfulness of a dancing lemon. Her portraits display the strength, humility, and hopefulness hiding below the surface in everyday movements.

Diane has worked with colored pencils for most of her life, and her art in this medium displays a combination of restrained pencil strokes and passionate creativity. Colors are mixed gradually and carefully, boundaries are mapped, yet action and carefree movement is plentiful in her "still" lives. Recently, she has begun using acrylics - a change in medium that has allowed her to reinvent the mood and subject matter common to her earlier work. Her acrylic pieces depict the simple beauties of the northern, rural area in which she has made her home. In contrast to her earlier work, the newer art manifests a restrained joyfulness in creation and a realistic representation of nature.

Diane lives with her husband and her two dogs and two cats. When she is not painting, she spends her time baking, playing with her dogs, and gardening.

From the Artist: First and foremost, I would like to thank the Lord Jesus Christ to whom I would not have the talent, time, and ambition to pursuit to do what I love to do most: ART. Second, I would like to thank my family, my loving and supportive husband Christopher, my daughter Natalie who made this gift of putting my art online and my other daughter Emily for all of her support and drive to keep me keepin' on!