Diana Watson

Biography

“What inspires me to make art? Everything. It is a complete way of life, never far from my thoughts. Seeing beauty all around me, colours, shapes, shadows, nature and the challenge of putting it on canvas.” Diana Watson.

Australian artist Diana Watson’s elegant still-life paintings have earned the Sydney-based artist great repute locally, and now it seems the rest of the world is catching on, with selected works set to appear on the silver screen, in Hollywood production Collateral Beauty, as well as in celebrity chef Rick Stein’s new restaurant in Marlborough, Wiltshire (UK). Watson has been honing her talent for more than 20 years, the joy she takes in her work evident in each brush stroke. Her paintings resonate with a sense of warmth, nostalgia, depth and intrigue – at once beguiling and comforting.

“I have been painting for a long time. I studied commercial art and fine art when I left school a million years ago. I worked in advertising as a fashion artist before motherhood and when my kids were older I had time to do what I wanted to do.”

Numerous exhibitions in Australia and the USA have coloured Diana’s career, with work held in corporate and private collections in Dubai, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, the UK, USA, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand and throughout Australia.

Solo Exhibitions

44+ in Gold Coast, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra.

Group Exhibitions

38+ in Brisbane, Sydney, California, Tokyo.

Major Commissions

1979 – 1991 University of Queensland Press : Paintings & drawings for book jackets 1994 University of Central Queensland Press : 12 paintings for Shadows of Utopia – A History of Australia, Manfred Jurgensen

Select Awards

2013 Holding Redlich People’s Choice Award, Salon des Refuses, E H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1999 Sunday Mail Art Prize, Brisbane
1998 Caloundra Art Prize (Painting)
1996 Still Life Award, Redcliffe Art Show Caloundra Art Prize
1994 Noosa Art Prize Sunshine Coast Art Group Prize
1993 Maroochy Art Prize
1986 Printmaking Prize, Redcliffe Art Show, Brisbane
1980 Gold Coast City Council Acquisition Prize, Concurry Art Prize, Toowoomba City Council Acquisition Prize.

Select Collections

Tweed Regional Gallery; Ipswich City Council; Rockhampton Art Gallery; BHP Billiton; News Corp; University of Qld Press; Tattersall’s Club Brisbane; Tim Fairfax Collection; St Albans Gold Coast; Suncorp Collection Brisbane; Tamar Collection, Tasmania. Private Collections in Australia, NZ, Asia, USA, Germany, UK, France & United Emirates

Selected Publications

• Belle Magazine, Feb/March , 2017
• Under Cover, Craig Munro, Scribe (Memoir), 2015
• Sally Browne, Sunday Mail, August 2012 : When Art Beats As One
• Judy Andersen, Gold Coast Bulletin, June 17-18/ 2006 : A Lightness in the Moment • Coast magazine (painting used as cover art), Issue 12, CA, USA, 2004
• Heidi Meyer, Courier Mail, May 11, 2004: Solitary Figures Convey Sense of Longing
• Sue Smith, Courier Mail, June 4, 1998 : World of Her Own
• Australian Vision, Anthology of Australian Paintings & Poetry, Hodder Education, 1997
• Shadows of Utopia – A History of Australia by Manfred Jurgensen, UCQ Press, 1994
• Focus : 17 Australian Women Focus on the Progress of Women in Society Over the Past 100 Years, published by Adelaide Central Gallery, 1994
• Elwyn Lynn, The Australian, The Weekend Review May 22-23, 1993
• Elwyn Lynn, The Australian, The Weekend Review Jan 18 -19, 1992
• Australian Artist Magazine, feature article, Oct 1992