“Painter of Paradise” Plein air oil artist Diane Snoey Appler is a member of Maui’s Lahaina Arts Society who first studied at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, California. Her first experience with painting en plein air was as a student of French-born artist Brigitte Curt. Diane’s awards include accolades as the People’s Choice Award winner in the 2018 and 2019 Lahaina Poster Contest held annually with nation-wide  entries. Diane’s warm landscape scenes of California and Maui are inspired by a sincere love of the outdoors which first developed in the lakes and forests of Traverse City, Michigan.  As a child Diane played in tree houses she built and paddled her canoe across Lake Arbutus to meet the school bus, and pursued many different forms of art until deciding painting was her passion. Diane’s first oil and water color painting efforts were nurtured along with help from her uncle Nicholas Zrolka, also an artist.  Her paintings reflected a desire to honor the beauty she found around her in other places in the world, and then a focus on the hills and lakes of California’s Sierra Nevada.   However, on her first trip to Maui in 1999 Diane knew that her heart had found its home in Maui.  Owners of Diane’s art speak of the emotional remembrance of Maui’s magical feeling which her warm and vibrant tones evoke.    Diane now paints from her Trade Winds Studio in South Maui overlooking the Pacific.