Life After Chase: Diane Santomauro Bresee

Artist's Paintings on Exhibit at NYPL Branch

 
 
As Diane Santomauro, Diane Bresee spent the 1980s at Chase in  
North American Corporate Banking, Public Utilities, Corporate Cash Management Sales and Private Banking.
 
As Diane Santo, she is an accomplished and prolific painter and sculptor, who is exhibiting eight of her stunning realistic oil paintings of life on Papua New Guinea (PNG) through the end of December 2024 at the New York Public Library branch at 112 East 96th Street, Manhattan. (To view the entire series and other works, visit dianebresee.com.
 
"I’m an adventure traveler who enjoys being ‘off the beaten path’. The Papua New Guinea series of oil paintings is a result of my quest and to honor my father who served there during World War Two," Bresee said.
 
"The images portray the individuals I personally met, spoke to, interacted with and photographed on my expedition to PNG," she explained. "The people are shown in various activities of their daily life: Singing, music making, yam farming, fishing, fire making, mat weaving. I show family groupings, school children, children swimming and warriors, who are all in traditional dress with tribal patterns, feathers and shells."
 
"The on-the-ground experience I gained from traveling to PNG, allowed me to portray as accurately and humanly as possible, the people of the various islands in the Bismark Sea, the Coral Sea, the Sepik River and the Southern Highlands."
 
Bresee painted the works back in the United States from the photos she took on her trip. Their subjects have not seen them – yet. She nurses the idea of returning to PNG with the paintings.
 
Bresee earned a BA in Education and Fine Arts at SUNY Oneonta before getting an MBA in Marketing and Accounting at Adelphi University. 

 

 

She has studied at the Art Students League, The National Academy, NYC;,The School of Visual Arts and The Albany Institute of Art. Her work is included in juried shows annually, and she has two works in the permanent collection of the Weill Cornell Medical College Library.  

 
 

Above is a photo with two of the paintings at the NYPL branch. Bresee is wearing a shirt inspired by the flag of Papua New Guinea.

 

Below is a photo of her scuba diving off Papua New Guinea with an "actual size" Napoleon wrasse.

           

 

 

Diane Santo, Huli Face Painting
Huli, Southern Highlands
 
NYPL Branch Hours
112 East 96th Street (Between Park and Lexington)
 
Monday    10 AM–7 PM
Tuesday   10 AM–7 PM
Wednesday   10 AM–7 PM
Thursday   10 AM–7 PM
Friday    10 AM–5 PM
Saturday   10 AM–5 PM
Sunday    CLOSED

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