By Julie Osterman
Montana artist Diana Tremaine emphasizes that her equine images are about much more than just horses. “Because they’ve been such a prevalent part of history, it feels to me as though they’ve witnessed all the worst aspects of mankind, in wars where they’ve fought for us, and the best of mankind,” she explains. “I just feel that they have every emotion recorded in their very being, and it comes out when you look in their eyes. My paintings are about expressing the broader human experience.” To convey this idea, Tremaine typically works in a monochromatic palette and crops in close to the horse’s head, leaving only one eye visible. This creates an element of mystery, she says, where the viewer can ponder the known versus the unknown.
The artist grew up in New York City and lived in Los Angeles for 14 years before relocating to Montana in 2000. She feels that the environments of her formative years influenced her artistic vision to lean toward the contemporary side, as in her piece glow, which features a horse bathed in bright orange. “I like the juxtaposition between that hot, intense palette and the strong but mellow-looking horse,” she says. See her work in a solo exhibition this month at Gallatin River Gallery in Big Sky, MT. Tremaine is also represented by Visions West Gallery, Bozeman and Livingston, MT, and Center Street Gallery, Jackson, WY.
Featured in “Artists to Watch” March 2006