Diana Lehr works in pastel (usually with a watercolor underpainting) and in oil. See Rolling Field (pastel, 22x30) at left, available at Patricia Cameron Fine Art in Seattle.

Artist John Burns, who I met at IAPS in May, said he walked into a gallery in Hawaii where her work was hanging, and his jaw dropped. "I couldn't remember being so moved by an artist's work," he says. "Her pieces are extraordinarily powerful, grabbing your attention from a great distance. Then, when you get close, you are rewarded again with her wonderfully textured layering."

Lehr is certainly interested in light and color as tools for expression. In an artist's statement, Lehr also speaks of a close connection to the natural world: "Our interior world and the internal states that interest me most are stimulated by our experience of being alive in nature," she writes. "Exploring the dynamic relationship between Earth, the atmosphere and the sun is of particular interest. I am especially fascinated when the elements and forces of nature combine to form strange appearances; allowing a glimpse into an ever-changing, shifting reality."

I was fascinated, too, to watch Lehr's art video—another medium that she has begun to explore (click here to watch a video). Her interest is fueled mostly by the fact that it allows her to capture movement, adding another path—beyond light and color—for her artistic expression.