Kelseyville >> The Kelseyville Pear Festival is one of the most anticipated events each year. On the last weekend of September, three stages for musicians and dancers, upwards of 100 craft and food vendors and special exhibits attract huge crowds to the streets of Kelseyville. Preparation begins months in advance. One important step in the planning process is selecting a poster for the event.
This year Kelseyville resident Diane Tembey-Stawicki’s silk painting best captured that spirit and took home first prize. Her artwork, a fantastical painting of mountains shaped like pears high over the streets of Kelseyville, will pop up on Pear Festival posters around the county in the months to come.
Tembey-Stawicki has some experience when it comes to the poster competition; she’s entered three times before and won twice, in 2007 and 2008. And though this was her third win, it didn’t make the victory any less sweet. “I’m always very proud to represent Kelseyville and their Pear Festival,” she said. “I’m very happy that the committee found my work inspiring or something.”
She took a different approach to this year’s painting. In ‘07 and ‘08 she used watercolor, but opted for silk dyeing this time around. The medium is more involved than many others. “When you are dying silk, I think it takes longer to do than oil or acrylic because there’s so many processes,” she said. “I don’t know how long it took.”
Though the medium was different, all three winning pieces shared a common theme. They each leaned toward the fantastic, as opposed to the realistic. Interestingly, the rest of Tembey-Stawicki’s artwork falls mostly into the realism category. “The truth of the mater is, those three things are the only things I’ve ever done in that style,” she said. “Those are the only three paintings with that kind of a feeling.”
Tembey-Stawicki first began experimenting with painting in the ‘90s as a form of self-expression and relaxation. Without any formal art training behind her, she picked up a brush and went to work with oil paints. From there she branched out to acrylics and watercolors and then finally found silk painting. Most recently, she’s stuck her hands into clay. “It’s kind of fun to try different mediums,” Tembey-Stawicki said. “I enjoy that.”
Though painting began as a way to unwind, it’s progressed beyond that. Tembey-Stawicki has paintings on display at the Saw Shop in Kelseyville and another restaurant in Napa. She and her husband are also adding onto their home so she can work in her own studio. “Now, it’s not that I’m stressed out when I paint, but I’m very serious about it,” she said. “I don’t like doing it just for fun.”
Even before picking up a paintbrush, Tembey-Stawicki was firmly planted in the art world. Growing up, her mother owned a dance studio and as a result, Tembey-Stawicki has been shimmying across the stage since a young age. Through her entertainment business, she’s spent her career dancing, singing and producing shows. “In the other side of my life I’m in the theatrical arts,” she said. “So I’ve always, always been in the arts, just a different form.”
Today, Tembey-Stawicki and her sister run the Golden Follies, a Las Vegas-style musical and dance revue group for women over the age of 50. Their oldest member is 90-years-old. They’ve performed all over the state, from the Soper Reese Theatre to Paramount Theatre. “It brings a lot of joy to people,” Tembey-Stawicki said. “You learn so much about life when you are working with seniors. I have learned a tremendous amount from just working with older people. I love it.”
Music drives nearly all of Tembey-Stawicki’s artistic endeavors. She draws inspiration for both paintings and the Golden Follies from the melody of a song. Recently, she found herself so inspired that she painted from dawn to dusk, completing her work in one day. “It was just coming out of me, I don’t know what it was,” she said.
With a strong compulsion to create, Tembey-Stawicki doesn’t over think her work. “In all the cases, of all the times I’ve tried to enter [the Pear Festival poster contest], I just came up with this idea and just moved with it,” she explained.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
Cutline 1: Tembey-Stawicki’s winning artwork for the 2015 Kelseyville Pear Festival poster competition. The piece is made using silk dyeing.
Cutline 2: Tembey-Stawicki poses with her winning watercolor painting for the 2007 Pear Festival poster competition.
