Dianne Nelson

The thing I am passionate about is colour.

Dianne has traveled and lived in many locales; London and Toronto, Ontario; Uranium City, Saskatchewan (until it closed in 1982); Melbourne, New South Wales, Australia; Cairns, Queensland, Australia; Bella Bella, B.C.; Ucluelet, B.C.; Fort Liard, N.T. (for fourteen years, a record!), finally landing in Campbell River, B.C.

I love nature and being in the outdoors. I love stories and writing. I also love dancing, music and working out.

Her love of silk painting started after a workshop experience at the Great Northern Art Festival in Inuvik in 2002. From there is has continued to blossom.

Dianne develops all of her own designs and patterns, so that each piece is an original. The hardest part of the process, for her, is waiting for things to dry. The painting is completed with special silk paints, not dyes. These lend the paintings their vivid colours and their resistance to fading in light. The process ends with two sessions of steaming and washing. After this, the painting is set and can be hung free as a banner, or mounted on canvas.

Dianne's biggest creative influences: Nature; the local landscape, trees, animals, Salmon; the poetry of the cycle, returning home from the sea, swimming upstream, a metaphor for her. The ocean.

My friends in the Silk Painters of Vancouver Island, out of Parksville are a huge support and inspiration.

I am blessed to have not had an attack of the blank canvas syndrome. There is just never an end to subjects for painting on silk.