Diane Ibbotson

Diane Ibbotson (born 1946) is an English artist born in Lancashire, England. She attended the University of Reading from 1964 to 1968, and taught at Blackpool College of Art, and then the Falmouth School of Arts between 1974 and 1981. Through a short video interview from a studio visit, Ibbotson traces the beginning of her career to when she was eight years old. When she showed a drawing she had done of her cat, everyone she showed it to enjoyed it.

Works Ibbotson's choice of subject matter and technique are filled with autobiographical meaning, showing her experience of a moment in time, including elaborate detail. The work shows the reflection of Ibbotson in a bathroom mirror. Ibbotson says that she pencil outlined all of the major points in the painting and then "I put the descriptive bits in as I went along, my reflection, the objects, the pattern on the wallpaper." She returned to this theme from 1975–1977, painting a series of self-portraits.