Diana Dean

Diana Bridget Alice Dean (born September 29, 1942) is a Canadian artist who has been based on Saltspring Island since 1982.

Biography Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, then the British colony of Rhodesia, Dean's parents were from Yorkshire, England. They divorced in 1952 and Dean left Africa with her mother to return to England where they struggled financially. It was Dean's immigration away from Africa back to England at the age of ten that prompted her to turn to art and the landscapes of her mind. Dean was accepted to grammar school and studied science before turning to art. Dedicating herself to sculpture, she hitchhiked to St Ives, Cornwall and studied informally with Denis Mitchell before formal training under John Hoskin at the Bath School of Art and Design between 1961 and 1964. In 1970 she was commissioned to do a public sculpture for the new Castleford Civic Centre and created "Symmetry in Opposition." Symmetry in Opposition, Stainless Steel, Castleford Civic Centre, West Yorkshire, UK, 1970.

Despite earning a distinction in sculpture at university and subsequent awards for her sculptural work, Dean turned to painting after emigrating to Canada for lack of resources and space. Her initial dedication to abstraction gradually gave way to increasing realism. The stylistic influence of the Renaissance masters and modernists such as Van Gogh or Balthus are evident in her figural work. thumb The natural beauty of the landscape and coastline of British Columbia has also been a major theme in her work since the late 1980s and continues to inspire her work. Confederation Centre of the Arts, and the Surrey Art Gallery in BC. In 2009 Dean exhibited at the Florence Biennale with a panel, "The Kitchen," from her Banquet Series, a 68-foot-long series of 10 canvases completed over the course of a decade. In 2016 Dean was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.