'The Shallow End' - Bob Diven Original 
- Sold Winning Bid: $210.00
- 23 Bid(s) View Bid History
- High Bidder: DSorensen
'The Shallow End' - Bob Diven Original
- Oil On Canvas
- Framed
- Early 1990’s
ARTIST NOTES: This painting is from the series I came to call "Modern Women", where I was always on the lookout for women at work that I could paint. I made several paintings of two lifeguards at the NMSU pool, whom I met by walking into the swimming pool building and asking if anyone was up for modelling for some paintings. The two who said yes were fantastic, and I loved the lifeguard swimwear because it was distinctive and not too revealing. I love to paint skin, but I also love to paint fabric, and interesting things happen when the two meet. This is one of those instances where my ethic of including details that reward the careful viewer is definitely at work. Such as the variation in the swimsuit between the areas that are still wet and those that are drying out. Fun fact: This painting would have won first place in a show in El Paso but someone noticed that I had only painted four toes on one of her feet! I later corrected that.
Condition:
Good, As Shown
Size:
Frame Size: 43.25 X 41
Painting Size: 41.75 X 39.5
About the Artist:
New Mexico artist Bob Diven came to Las Cruces at the age of 5. His father was a World War 2 veteran and former big-band singer from Pennsylvania who became a high school English teacher at Mayfield High School the year it opened. Bob's mother was a former collegiate champion golfer from Illinois who had attended a summer camp in New Mexico in the 1930s and played in a golf tournament in Las Cruces in 1941. Bob grew up exploring the desert with his four older brothers, Bill, Chuck, Ben, and Jack.
Bob graduated from Las Cruces High School, and after a year of college at NMSU joined the US Coast Guard and was stationed in the Bay Area of California. It was there, while awaiting his discharge, that he met Chet, a former professional commercial artist, who was able to evaluate Bob's drawing and sculpting skills and offer guidance in the selection of a small art school in Denver, Colorado, that specialized in figure drawing and anatomy.
Bob refers to his time at The Rocky Mountain School of Art (now The Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design) as "The most revolutionary educational experience" of his life. He worked from the live model every day, learning anatomy and the depiction of light and shadow in a traditional way.
After art school, Bob began to work as an illustrator and found work as a commercial artist in Albuquerque, working in television, advertising, and publishing. During a short stint volunteering in The Netherlands, he was exposed to the work of Van Gogh and came back to Las Cruces, bought a paint box and some oil paints, and set out to paint landscapes like the Impressionists. At this time, paintings finally began to make sense to him.
Over the years Bob expanded his skills as he explored the many natural-born talents he inherited. His paintings continued to improve, but he also took on theatrical scenery design, writing, musical composition, playwriting, sculpture, and editorial cartooning.
He won top prizes at the first Denver Street Art Festival and the top award at El Paso's Chalk the Block. His editorial cartoons and writing have won state and national awards, and his paintings have been shown in local, regional, and national juried exhibitions and are included in permanent collections. The Doña Ana Arts Council gave Bob their Community Arts Award, and Artforms named him Community Artist of the Year. He has taught classes and workshops, been an artist in residence in the Las Cruces Public Schools and with The Downtown Las Cruces Partnership.
Bob has built his life around his art, making room for whatever inspirations come his way. His hobby is reviving old typewriters.