Diana Persson

Diana Persson

Canadian Watercolour  Artist

   Watercolour painting has been a long-time dream for Diana, but since March 2009 it is a joyful passion and compulsion. “I paint mainly in watercolour because I especially love the unpredictability and the challenge of the medium. I am very happy that my art absorbs and obsesses me at times”

  She completed her nurse’s training in South Africa in 1990 after which she enjoyed her role as homemaker, mother of two and partner to her husband, Ockie. Since childhood Diana’s interest has always inclined to the creative arts and after moving to Morden, Manitoba, and some years of secretarial work, she began focussing on her painting.

  Diana is self-taught and is a relative novice to watercolours. She attributes much of her painting knowledge to good art books, browsing the net and a keen sense of observation. Her subjects are varied but tie together with her realistic style and characteristic detail and softness. “My paintings are usually a celebration of a beautiful moment!”

 

EXHIBITIONS:

• “Awakening” Art Exhibition in Winkler,  MB. 2009.
  

• The Central Region Juried Art Exhibit, Manitoba, 2009 (People’s Choice Award winner).
  

• Manitoba touring exhibit of selected works from the Central Region Juried Art Exhibit 2009 including Portage la Prairie, Winnipeg, Holland, Morden and Carman.
  

• "Journey in Watercoulour - From the Beginning", Morden, 2009
  

• Posers 1st Annual People's Choice Exhibition, November 2009 (People's Choice Award Winner)
  

 

   "My website is essentially to share my watercolour journey with you. No, I have not been painting for a long time; I'm in my 40's and have never been to art school, but the journey started in childhood. Each past experience has shaped and formed me and contributes to my present knowledge. One doesn't just "start painting"! I am grateful for each of the countless creative projects I dabbled in throughout my life, teaching me form and proportion, developing an eye for detail and how to use my hands as a vehicle for transferring an idea from my mind to the medium of choice.

  Each 'hobby' was approached with intense passion, and yielded reasonable results and satisfaction before I jumped to the next creative medium. Watercolours always   intrigued  me,   but mostly intimidated me because I couldn't get it 'right' the first time. It would return to the back seat and the things with guaranteed success won my attention and action. Maybe I wasn't ready for it then.

   So life went. My energy was joyfully shared with these hobbies and raising my children and making a home that they would want to come back to. For years motherhood defined me and fulfilled me and perhaps in some way it was preparing me to start painting. What has this got to do with watercolors? Well, I see so many similarities with raising children and watercolour painting! Both require patience and tenacity and a lot of attention. Both are commenced with absolutely no idea of what I'm going to do next, and I learn as I go along. The method for each is a series of immediate problem solving and sometimes crisis intervention, which is often instinctive. Both keep you up at night. Both are unpredictable: they sometimes behave badly and also often surprise you. No two behave in the same way. Both talk back to you. Both look best with a series of many washes. Neither will make you rich but both make you proud. Both end up in a frame on the wall above the piano, and lastly, they will always be my babies!

  I love the intensity and the passion painting demands. Watercolour painting forces me to tap deep into my problem solving reserves and pushes the boundaries of what I know and am able to do! I am very happy that my art absorbs and obsesses me at times.

  Other parts of my world will also appear in these pages, since clearly, my life and my art intertwine so that they are indistinguishable and quite inseparable. With my two children in university now I have gained two things: the luxury of time, and a lifetime of contributing knowledge. That, together with my new friends Windsor & Newton and a fresh stack of crisp Arches paper, makes me look forward to the next step of this journey!

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This site was created by, & is owned and maintained the artist.