Rebel With A (Lot of) Color
An outsider might see Sonya Diimmler’s idyllic life and believe she’s lucky. The award-winning artist awakens to a view of Lake Murray, leisurely sips a coffee, and heads next door to her studio where she pops on her favorite music and paints large scale landscapes, marshes and abstracts; her favorite songs guiding her mood and brushes. Indeed, it looks like a dream life, but the path to her destiny was not without challenges or heartbreak.
Sonya and Smedley in her studio
Some people believe that if you’re happy with where you are today, you have to be happy with how you got there, because it may have been the only path to your current fate. Sonya’s journey has not been an easy one. As an only child in a military family that moved frequently, Sonya was regularly uprooted and had to learn to acclimate to new towns, schools and people. It could be pretty lonely. As an adult, Sonya’s heart broke in 2010 when her first husband suddenly died. But in 2015, another challenging time would ultimately lead her to her destiny of becoming a painter.
Sonya was helping to care for her father during an extended hospice stint while her mom went to church/ran errands, etc. During this time, her mother –an artist herself– encouraged Sonya to paint beginning with the grid method to capture her beloved bulldog Smedley. Soon thereafter, Sonya committed to the craft and began a daily practice, though her mother would not witness her daughter’s artistic peak from this earth. She passed away in 2020. “You don’t really get over grief.” Sonya explains. “You just learn how to move through it.”
Sonya and her mom in Portugal
There is a fairly well-known saying whose original source is up for debate: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. With the intention of long-term growth and success as an artist, Sonya took her first workshops in 2015 with Mary Bentz Gilkerson and joined the Crooked Creek Art League in 2016. Surrounding oneself with like-minded-people who are working toward similar goals has a way of keeping one focused. Sonya attributes much of her artistic growth to the League. “The workshops are fantastic opportunities. They’re affordable. They’re conveniently located. CCAL gives people the opportunity to show their work, which gets people recognized – not to mention the many friendships and community it provides.”
Sonya’s art progressed swiftly, and earned her awards at the SC State Fair and Union County Arts Council. She most recently won The People’s Choice Award at the Crooked Creek Art League’s 2022 Juried Show. Her oversized vivid, impressionistic sunsets, cloudscapes and landscapes with names like Love Blooms Here and All That’s Good sing with vibrance and beckon viewers into joyous daydreams.
Using primarily oils and painting “alla prima” which literally translates to “wet on wet,” Sonya often mixes colors on her canvas and completes a painting in a single sitting. When Sonya paints, she intends to capture the essence of a subject in the moment – not necessarily portray realistic details. “Our eye will finish a painting,” Sonya explains. One benefit she reaps via painting alla prima is that there is rarely enough time to overwork a painting. “Sometimes I look at one of my paintings and think, ‘I know there are improvements I can make to that painting, but do I want to do that?’ Because when I try to do that, I may have a more finished painting, but I may also have a less heartfelt, less passionate painting.” For Sonya, the joy of painting is found in large, loose brush strokes that result in pieces that echo the fearless freedom and unapologetic swiftness with which they were created.
““On the outside, people might see an austere, aloof person. On the inside there is a lot of emotion and compassion. That’s one of the things I love about painting. It lets that stuff out.” ”
Teal Lake
After learning to use oil paints, Sonya migrated to acrylics for a special commissioned installation. Known for dog portraits as much as sunsets, Sonya’s dogs adorn the fence at Chapin Veterinary Hospital, welcoming pet lovers into the care facility. The 10-piece installation, which features large format portraits was the inspiration to learn acrylics as their color doesn’t degrade outdoors.
While music cannot technically be called one of Sonya’s mediums, it would be remiss to ignore its effect on her work. With a vast range of taste from the Beastie Boys, to Lynn Anderson; Rage Against the Machine, to Marty Robbins, the playlists she chooses on any given day play a significant role in Sonya’s creative process. She points out a prominent squiggle of bright lemon green oil stick in When World’s Collide, and says, “here: you can see I was listening to something funky. Maybe Cake.” Everyone “dances” in their own way.
When World’s Collide
Truthfully, Sonya’s goal is to sell more work, but not for the reasons one might think. “Even if you take money out of the equation, you’re kind of spinning your wheels if the work doesn’t go out into the world.” She wants her art to be experienced by people; for others to feel the emotions that she felt when she created it. Selling her work will allow her to complete more work, and with a string of exhibitions in the past year, Sonya has been successful. The Columbia Airport and Rob Shaw Gallery have exhibited/sold her work, and the Chapin Chophouse is the home of her current show until December 31. Two of Sonya’s abstracts were just juried into a show at Anderson Fine Art Gallery in St. Simon, and she has been selling work at her home away from home, High Noon in Ballentine, as well as on her website. As an up-and-coming artist on the local scene, her pieces are beginning to appear in private collections in and around Lake Murray in particular. It’s an exciting time, and Sonya looks forward to seeing where her art takes her.
While she hasn't exactly had a dream life, Sonya's literally creating one, one painting at a time. With the support of her husband David, many friends, the CCAL, and gallery rep Angie Rhame, painting has helped transform Sonya's feelings of alienation and grief into brightness and freedom. The strong-willed yet soft spoken Sonya says, “on the outside, people might see an austere, aloof person. On the inside there is a lot of emotion and compassion. That’s one of the things I love about painting. It lets that stuff out.”
When considering her earlier challenges and losses, Sonya says, “if I dwell on that, then I can’t have this, that I love. You have to go on.” It helps to know that her mother would be proud of not only of the art Sonya is creating, but of the resolution with which Sonya approaches it. Creating dreamy, vibrantly-colored impressionistic art has helped Sonya move through loss to a happier place, and the resulting works will surely help viewers do the same.
Sonya’s art can be seen at Chapin Chophouse until Dec. 31, 2022. To learn more, go to SonyaDiimmlerArt.com, HighNoonArtGallery.com, or follow her on Instagram @SonyaDiimmlerArt.
