Diana B A Dean

Diana Dean RCA, a Resident Salt Spring Island oil painter and sculptor Diana Dean is considered to be one of Canada's foremost artists. Born in 1942, from English parents, in the dry, spacious landscape of Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, living there for eight years, then moving to South Africa for two years. At the age of ten Diana and her family left Africa and returned to England. This stark contrast in scenery and lifestyle has had a lasting influence on her life and work. Diana began painting at the age of fourteen, and attended the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, England, from where she graduated with a distinction in Sculpture in 1964 and commenced her life as a professional artist while raising a family of her own.In 1982, Dean found her real vision in the natural beauty of the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada, where she has produced a large collection of sculpture and paintings many of which sit in some of the finest collections ranging from Norway to Great Britain, Canada and the United States.Dean's canvases are often richly allegorical or mythic, open to interpretation. Her work touches deeply on the spiritual, emphasizing the contrast between light and dark but also allowing for vast amounts of colour. The sub...