Watercolour painter dips into new medium
Dianne Nelson transfers skills onto silk
Dana Bowen
Northern News Services
Monday, March 28, 2016
ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD
Dianne Nelson has found pockets of inspiration from the places she has lived, indcluding Australia and numerous locations across Canada.
But it's her current home in Fort Liard where Nelson has discovered the biggest spark of creativity when it comes to her painting.
"I'm into Northern themes," said Nelson. "I like painting wildlife and hide animals around (the picture) and I love the birch forest and the big rivers - all those things."
Nelson is a teacher in Fort Liard, but finds time outside of her job to work on vivid Northern sceneries.
Her images often consist of vibrant skies and reflective water or silhouettes of wildlife - subjects she said she finds most inspirational.
Many of her pieces contain pinks, blues and greens with one even appearing to have a tie dye sky.
"Colour is my central thing," she added.
While Nelson has been interested in the arts since childhood and studied the subject at York University in Toronto, her choice of media has changed since heading North.
She originally began working with water-based paints and still does occasionally paint with watercolour and acrylics, but painting on silk is a new favourite for her.
Because of the minimal space needed to work with the medium and the multiple uses for her work, Nelson said she has taken a liking to the flexible art form.
"There are so many uses after," she said. "You can wear them, use them as a lamp cover, table runner, hang as a banner or hang in a frame."
The artist has even created silk shirts for a ballet company in Chicago and mentioned she often thinks about turning more of her work into wearable art.
Nelson's interest in silk peaked upon first moving North 13 years ago after attending a workshop at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik.
"I just fell in love and thought, 'Well I could do this,'" she said. "So I just toyed around with it."
Since then, Nelson has taught workshops on the creative style which she said she hopes to do more often.
Until then, the painter steadily works on creating more silk pieces outside of helping children hone their own artistic abilities, as a teacher.
