About

Diane May

Diane May is a representation painter with a modern impressionistic sensibility.  Her work explores light and color in the landscape as well as in the constructed reality of the still life. She paints on location and from life whenever possible. When creating larger works in the studio, she references her ‘plein air’ paintings and outdoor sketches in order to maintain an authentic reaction to her original inspiration.

A Nashville resident, May is a founding member and a past president of The Chestnut Group, an organization of Tennessee-based artists celebrating and documenting endangered landscape and focusing on alla prima plein air painting. She is a juried member and past president of Plein Air Painters of the Southeast, a member of Oil Painters of America, and belongs to the American Impressionist Society, American Women Artists, and Women Painters of the Southeast.

More recently she has focused on painting the landscape of her native New England and Nova Scotia, along the Atlantic coast of northern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, in addition to endangered landscapes in Tennessee. Her travels have also included painting trips to Cuba, Israel, and Venice.

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Featured Events:

  • Forgotten Coast Invitational (Apalachicola, FL)

  • Door County Invitational (Door County, WI)

  • Cranford Plein Air (Cranford, NJ)

  • Plein Air Easton (Easton, MD)

  • Plein Air Vermont (Bennington, VT)

  • Sonoma Plein Air (Sonoma, CA)

  • Wayne Plein Air (Wayne, PA)

  • Los Gatos Plein Air (Los Gatos, CA)