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Diana Bridget Alice Dean (born September 29, 1942) is a Canadian artist who has been based on Saltspring Island since 1982.
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 
Drawing heavily on personal biography, the artist has repeatedly addressed issues of female strength, independence, and empowerment. Works such as "Woman Pushing a Rock Up a Hill" (1984), "He Lit a Fire as the Morning Mist Arose" (1992) and "Seven Stages of Woman" (1999) simultaneously reflect personal struggles and common feminist concerns. 
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. In this regard she follows in the footsteps of the Group of Seven, particularly Emily Carr.
Her work is held by numerous public and private collections across Canada including the MacLaren Art Centre, the Canada Council Art Bank, Confederation Centre of the Arts, and the
Saltspring Island Artist Directory
British and Irish Artists of the 20th Century Biographies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dean, Diana 1942 births Living people Alumni of Bath School of Art and Design Canadian painters Canadian women painters 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists 20th-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian sculptors 21st-century Canadian sculptors Canadian women sculptors Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Biography
Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, then the British colony ofRhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
, 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
St Ives ( kw, Porth Ia, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commerci ...
and studied informally with Denis Mitchell before formal training under John Hoskin
John Hoskin (1921–1990) was a British sculptor from Cheltenham. He began drawing when he returned from Germany after serving in the Second World War. Terry Frost, a painter from the St. Ives school encouraged him to become a sculptor. John wh ...
at the Bath School of Art and Design
Bath School of Art and Design is an art college in Bath, England, now known separately as Bath School of Art and Bath School of Design. It forms part of the Bath Spa University whose main campus is located a few miles from the City at Newton Pa ...
between 1961-64. It was through these mentors that she had occasion to meet Barbara Hepworth
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...
in the 1960s. Dean emigrated to Canada in 1975 when her husband, an architect, accepted a teaching position at Carleton University. In 1979 she and her family moved again to Vancouver. After her divorce she took three of her four sons to live on an undeveloped piece of land on Saltspring Island, feeding them on a camp fire and living in two tents while overseeing the construction of a home.
Art
Dean had her first solo sculpture show in 1966 at the Association of International Artists' Gallery in London and has had 21 solo exhibitions across England and Canada. In 1970 she was commissioned to do a public sculpture for the new Castleford Civic Centre and created "Symmetry in Opposition."
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
Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his image ...
are evident in her figural work. She often casts everyday characters into mythological or spiritual narratives drawn from diverse cultures and periods as in "Innana Descending into the Underworld" (1986), "The Ritual" (1986) or her self-portrait as "Diana the Huntress" (1994). Drawing heavily on personal biography, the artist has repeatedly addressed issues of female strength, independence, and empowerment. Works such as "Woman Pushing a Rock Up a Hill" (1984), "He Lit a Fire as the Morning Mist Arose" (1992) and "Seven Stages of Woman" (1999) simultaneously reflect personal struggles and common feminist concerns.
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. In this regard she follows in the footsteps of the Group of Seven, particularly Emily Carr.
Her work is held by numerous public and private collections across Canada including the MacLaren Art Centre, the Canada Council Art Bank, Confederation Centre of the Arts, and the Surrey Art Gallery
Surrey is a city in British Columbia, Canada. It is located south of the Fraser River on the Canada–United States border. It is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver regional district and metropolitan area. Mainly a suburban city, Sur ...
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."Diana Dean Inducted Into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA)," Loch Gallery News, http://www.lochgallery.com/node/16103/ Web.
References
External links
Saltspring Island Artist Directory
British and Irish Artists of the 20th Century Biographies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dean, Diana 1942 births Living people Alumni of Bath School of Art and Design Canadian painters Canadian women painters 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists 20th-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian sculptors 21st-century Canadian sculptors Canadian women sculptors Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts