Diana Dzene

About Diana Dzene

I started with painting over the basement walls of my parents’ house in an attempt to copy old masters. It led to painting on porcelain, fabric and other materials. After a while, painting took a very close place to my heart. So I got down to books, google, parents and other smart people to soak up as much information and skills I could, to learn the art of oil painting on canvas (as basement walls are not something easily available wherever one goes:). Aside from painting, I'm curious about the rules and history of painting, its origin and techniques. Unfortunately, in Latvia there's only one arts highest education institution which currently doesn't have a possibility to study art and combine it with a 9 to 6 job. Therefore I am a self thought artists who paints in evenings, weekends and uses ever single holiday to combine vacation with studies in art schools, universities or with local artists. Starting from year 2014, I felt more comfortable and confident with my works and was lucky to exhibit in castles and manors across Latvia and in 2015 March received an Excellence award at an international All Women 2015 art exhibition. In 2015 summer, I was honored to join Latvian group of professional painters of various associations at one of the most known plain air gatherings in Vestiena, Latvia. Because of time spent there - head and heart full of new knowledge and ideas - by autumn I was a student at the University of the Arts in London – Central Saint Martins, learning about painting techniques and mixing colors with Rodger Gill. Year later I met a Latvian-American painter who shared about his studies at the Art Student League of New York in 70'ties. I think his stories were so inspiring and encouraging, course of coincidences and my passion for art led me to Art Student League of New York in January 2017 for Anatomy and Drawing course with Peter Cox. Later that year I showed my works at a group exhibition in downtown Manhattan, NYC, at the Conception Arts art fair. I am a proud member of StartUpArt young artists platform in Latvia. I hope you enjoy my work!