The warm yellow and white walls of St. Francis de Sales Church in Purcellville invite visitors into the church, but Diane Waller’s dramatic, eye-catching paintings quickly draw attention to the sanctuary. There, painted into backdrops of black accentuated by stormy clouds, are portraits of St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal. In the center, God the Father and the Holy Spirit watch over the crucified Christ as angels stand watch.
While that triptych is the show-stopper, Waller’s art decorates much of the church. One wall has a portrait of St. Martin de Porres and the opposite wall has the image of Divine Mercy. St. Padre Pio is on one confessional, and when she completes the painting, St. John Vianney will be on the other. She hopes to create a large painting of St. Cecilia for the now-bare choir loft. Waller, a parishioner, gave all the paintings to her parish.
It began several years ago when she saw a notice in the bulletin asking for a portrait of St. Francis de Sales as the parish had no image of its namesake. “I thought, well, as a surprise I’ll go ahead and paint one,” she said. Two years later, she joined the parish renovation committee. The group chose an interior style they thought would represent the period when St. Francis lived — the Counter Reformation — opting for vibrant depictions of God and the saints.
“We wanted to make the church beautiful and something different,” she said. “When you come out to a small country parish and you open the doors, you don’t expect to see something that colorful.”
Waller never formally trained as a painter. “I was just born with a little bit of talent, (and) I studied and practiced on my own,” she said. As an “Army brat,” she grew up all over but considers McLean her hometown. She and her husband, Eric, have two children and three grandchildren. Some years ago, she started her own business of painting murals and faux finishes. “Eventually, I decided that I didn’t want to climb on ladders and scaffolds anymore and so I just transferred over to canvas,” she said.
Different parts of her home have become her studio as needed. “I repainted the corpus that’s on our crucifix above the altar. The original painting of Christ’s face and body didn’t match the color and style of the paintings I had already done for the sanctuary, so I had the corpus on my dining room table here and repainted almost the entire face and form,” she said. “The paintings in the sanctuary, I worked on those in my foyer on a scaffold for about eight months.” She currently paints in a sunny, window-lined room off her kitchen.
Her grandchildren are used to seeing her work at home, but showing them the paintings in the church was special. “It’s so cute, when I take them to Mass with me, they’ll be like, ‘Grandma, that’s what you were painting in the kitchen!’ ” she said. “I feel very, very humble that I’m able to do this. When I see parents or grandparents taking their grandkids up to the altar rail and pointing out the paintings and explaining to them who they are, I feel such a surge of thanksgiving and pride, but not pride for me, pride in our Catholic faith, seeing how it’s being passed down.”
Waller feels blessed to be able to use her time, talent and treasure to create beautiful art for her church. “I really believe that as a parishioner it’s your job to contribute to the parish, and everybody has their own charism, their own forte. Everybody has a part to play,” she said. “I had the time and I had the desire. I also believe very firmly that this was a God-given talent and I believe that if he gives you a talent, then it’s your job to give it back to him for his greater glory.”
