Diane Rappisi

Diane Rappisi is a contemporary realist painter whose work fuses the light and chroma of the Cape Cod colorists with the form and structure of the traditional Italian and French academies. She works in oil, pastel, charcoal, and graphite. She trained at Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, where she deepened her understanding of color, form and anatomy, and discovered her love of figure painting.

Diane’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and resides in private collections across the USA, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. She has had two solo exhibitions and has won awards in numerous juried shows including the International Association of Pastel Societies’ “Pastelworld” Biennial Juried Shows, the Pastel Society of America’s “Enduring Brilliance” in New York, NY, the International Mile-High Pastel exhibition in Denver, CO, the Academic Artists Association in Springfield, MA, and the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists in Old Lyme, CT.  Selected pieces have been published for the National Park Service in Glen Echo, MD. Diane was featured in the December 2014 issue of Pastel Journal and her work was selected in 2019 for inclusion in “Pure Pastel: Contemporary Works by Today’s Top Artists.” Recent accolades include 2^nd Place Portrait and Honorable Mention in Pastel Journal’s  highly competitive “Pastel 100.”

Diane is an IAPS Master Circle member, a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, an elected member of the Salmagundi Club in New York and the Oil Painters of America, and she holds memberships in the Maryland Pastel Society and the Pastel Society of Colorado.

Diane is an active supporter of arts education, both at the institutional level and working directly with students. She served as Executive Director and Interim President of Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, as a member of the Education Committee of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS), and she helped found two local arts organizations in southern NJ. She has presented demonstrations and workshops at the IAPS biennial convention in Albuquerque, NM, and conducted workshops at various arts organizations across the US, Australia and New Zealand.

While Diane is originally from New Jersey, she has lived, worked and taught in southeastern Massachusetts and Colorado. She and her husband have now relocated to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she has opened a studio “Diane Rappisi Fine Art” in Chestertown. Here she is able to bring together her art training and love of teaching, offering offers workshops, weekly classes and commissioned works alongside her private painting practice.

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