Diane Williams has always been talented as an artist. She is drawn to art. She spent her high school years focused on art, later doing her undergraduate work at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Williams went on to get her masters degree at Sacramento State where she really began to enjoy making art. She eventually got her Masters in Fine Arts at John F. Kennedy University.
Williams is inspired by nature, our impermanence on earth and the vulnerability between life and death. She admits her paintings are emotional and evoke emotion.
Williams used oil paints for 25 years but the fumes became overbearing. She eventually opted for less toxic mediums. She is now using acrylic, sumi ink and a rust solution made of vinegar, steel wook and hydrogen peroxide. “You can paint with it (the rust solution). It's unpredictable. You never know the color you're going to get, where it will pool or where it will get darker or richer,” says Williams.
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She confidently paints in large scale. One of her 3-panel paintings measures sixteen feet wide by seven feet tall. “I do paint smaller so I can show work in gallery shows," she says.
Williams' day job as a surgery scheduler at Kaiser Walnut Creek has been her mainstay for 18 years. “It pays the bills,” she says. For fun, Williams likes spending time with her dogs, enjoys music, gardening, travel, reading, movies and barbecuing at her arsenal studio.
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As one of original artists living and working in the Arsenal, Williams has participated in every single Benicia open studios. Her studio, which she shares with her husband, artist Chuck Potter, is a cornerstone in the arsenal. The two made the space into a practical art studio and a comfortable living space. The couple has since moved out of studio into a house in Vallejo where they have the best of both worlds. “We love Vallejo,” says Williams.
The two also have a cabin the mountains in Greenville near Quincy, California. The couple plan to host an art residence program there this summer for art students. They are currently renovating the property after a forest fire destroyed the garage at the cabin.
Having met at the Arts Benicia auction in 1995, Williams and Potter have been together 15 years. “Our life centers around Arts Benicia.” Williams has a daughter, 20 and son, 27. “We have a good life, by design and necessity. We build what we need.”
