Diana Dean: A Survey and New Works
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Diana Dean, "Salt Spring Island landscape," 2016
oil on canvas, 36" x 48"
Opening Sat May 27 6–9pm. Artist in Attendance.
Diana Dean’s home-studio perches on a wooded hilltop near the northern shore of Salt Spring Island. Since 1982, the artist has painted her large-scale dramatic compositions in this space. Looking around, it seems natural that the artist’s landscapes sing out the multi-hued splendour of her island home. The natural and the supra-natural blend effortlessly in her mythic environments peopled with saints, peasants, lovers, and protagonists.
Born in Rhodesia, educated in England, Diana Dean studied sculpture and painting at the Bath Academy of Art. After moving to Canada in 1975, she continued to paint and exhibit her work in group and solo shows. The artist's originals grace many private and corporate collections in North America and Britain. After 60 years of painting, her creative fires still burn brightly. Dean describes her process as “using the magic of painting materials to create a marriage between matter and inspiration.” Themes include a multitude of relationships: inner nature and outer expression, bonds with friends and family, and myriad elements of earth, sky and sea. She strives to bring the essence of her inner vision into her paintings.
The upcoming show at Martin Batchelor Gallery includes a retrospective of Dean’s artistic journey. She began painting abstractions with geometric shapes in the 1960’s. Gradually her work evolved more depth of space through manipulation of colour and form. Painting the human form presents an ongoing challenge for the artist. Within her dynamic scenarios, she often casts characters in heroic or mythic roles, while striving to preserve their individual personas.
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