Oklahoma State graduate returns from California to show her artwork

Diana Jaye’s landscape oil paintings to be showcased in the
OSU Foundation’s Malinda Berry Fischer Gallery until June 26

For Diana Jaye, painting in a studio is boring and tedious. Instead, she likes to get outside and paint what she sees, especially changing landscapes.

Jaye, a 1960 Oklahoma State University design, housing and merchandising graduate, spent many childhood years in Stillwater but has lived in Menlo Park, Calif., for the more than 45 years. She will return to exhibit her collection of plein air oil paintings at the OSU Foundation’s Malinda  Berry Fischer gallery through June 26. “Primary + White” will have an opening reception April 2 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Malinda Berry Fischer Gallery. The reception is free and open to the public.

“Primary + White” features landscapes Jaye painted using only magenta, thalo blue, yellow and white, which she mixed to create different colors — an idea inspired by a friend in the fall of 2007.

“As a matter of fact, I have not used any other color since then,” Jaye said. “So the exhibit is really showing what you can do with only three colors plus white.”

Jaye has been painting about 20 years. She said that, like many children, art was her favorite class, but she had to do something else to make a living. After retiring, Jaye is finally back to doing what she loves.

That leads her outside, where she often draws inspiration from the northern California landscape.  That is what she enjoys about plein air – French for “in the open air” – painting.

“If you are painting from a photograph, you may have missed the excitement of the sun hitting a particular spot or the fog rolling in or the field hand coming out to pick the sunflowers,” she said. “You just photographed it and you left. If you stay out there for two or three hours, you see a lot and you’re able to capture it and it’s very, very exciting when something wonderful happens. It’s really exhilarating.”

Jaye said she loves California, but there will always be a soft place in her heart for Stillwater and OSU.

“What I enjoyed most was the warmth of the town,” she said. “I had a lot of family and friends here. I thought Stillwater was such a wonderful town and the college, I think, was excellent. I loved my teachers, my advisers. I was very happy. It was a good place to go to school.”

Jaye’s paintings will be available for purchase, with 10 percent of proceeds benefiting OSU’s General Scholarship Fund.

Named in honor of the Foundation’s former board chairman, the Malinda Berry Fischer Gallery showcases Oklahoma and OSU artists.  The gallery serves to strengthen the connection between Oklahoma State University and the OSU Foundation.  The gallery is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The Oklahoma State University Foundation serves as the private fundraising organization for OSU, as designated by the OSU Regents. Its mission is to unite donor and university passions and priorities to achieve excellence.

Oklahoma’s only university with a statewide presence, Oklahoma State University is a five-campus, public land-grant educational system that improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality teaching, research and outreach.  OSU has more than 32,000 students across its system and nearly 21,000 on its Stillwater campus; with students from all 50 states and around 110 nations.  Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than 200,000 students who have made a lasting impact on Oklahoma and the world. 

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