Diana Dabinett lives and works in the rural community of Shoe Cove, Newfoundland ... a landscape far different from the one she experienced as a child in Central Africa. Nevertheless, it was her formative years in Africa that led her to understand and appreciate her relationship to the natural environment. It is this intimate and sensuous connection to nature that is so clearly portrayed and celebrated in her silk paintings, watercolours and architectural installations. Her art works are like poems, or love letters, written about a world of vibrant colour and shifting life forms.

"I attempt to present a unique view of the underwater world beyond the Newfoundland shoreline -- the seabirds along its rocky cliffs and its bogs, forest and fields inland. The surface teems with details from the natural environment, but captures the duality of its fragility and durability under the harsh conditions of this edge of Canada. Through direct observation of the environment -- supported by reference photographs and scientific fact -- I build up a storehouse of experiences and memories that are the catalyst for my work."

Diana's work is eagerly sought after by a growing number of private, public and corporate collectors in Canada, the U.S.A. and Europe. One of her more recent public commissions was a series of sixteen paintings for the Family Birthing Center of the Community Hospital in Monterey, California. She has just completed (1999) an Artist in the Community residency in Hopedale, on the Labrador Coast. Diana has completed and installed a commission for the new hospital in Goose Bay. She has also been elected to the Canadian Scoiety of Painters in Watercolour.
Image shown: "Northern Night" Dyes on silk 188 x 88 cm (75" x 35")