About Diane
Diane
Williams has a Masters degree in Art Education from the University of British
Columbia, Canada, and has been teaching art to high school students,
illustrating children’s books, and painting for over twenty years. During that
time she has continued to refine her artistic skills at the Federation of
Canadian Artists, the Vancouver Academy of Art, and Sacramento’s School of Light
and Color.
She began her art career at the age of five with Saturday morning art classes.
She remembers painting large murals with vibrant colors during those early
childhood forays into the world of art. Her passion for color and boldness
remains one of her trademarks.
With her father, Norm as a master of photography and her mother, Alice a
stained-glass artist, Diane developed an early fascination for light and its
nuances. When she was twelve, horses entered her life, and she rode until she
was sixteen. Twenty-five years later, following a series of severe injuries that
made walking painful, she returned to riding horses, as a form of healing. As
her body healed, she began to paint horses, uniting her two passions—her love of
painting and her love of horses.
Diane’s artwork, both commissioned and self-directed, hangs in collections
throughout North America. Her work was presented at Spruce Meadows in Calgary,
Alberta for the “Masters” and in Chilliwack, British Columbia, for the Canadian
Andalusian Festival. Most recently she attended the World Cup Dressage Symposium
in Las Vegas where she was commissioned to paint Lusitano stallions and be part
of the Robinson Lusitanos booth.
While in Las Vegas, Diane photographed Robinson Lusitanos’ International
Dressage Master riding a Pas de Deux to the famous love song “The Last Night of
the World”. The resulting painting, Portuguese Rider, was selected by the
International Andalusian & Lusitano Horse Association (IALHA) to be on the cover
of their 2006 IALHA National Show Program, to be held in Fort Worth, Texas, in
October 2006.
Diane lives outside Vancouver, B.C. in White Rock, with her cats, Sophie and
Tazz, and Amos, her beloved horse and muse. She divides her time
between her high school art students, flamenco dance, dressage with natural
horsemanship—and painting, whether finishing a commissioned piece, or pursuing
one of her own inner visions.
