Diane Roberts
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My earliest memories are of drawing by holding a pencil, making circular motions and filling the page with the shiny graphite. As a child I would collect hundreds of my scribbles, storing them neatly so that I could look through them again. Drawing was especially important to my experience and development, for as a dyslexic child, I found reading and writing virtually impossible until the age of 11. Drawing enabled my self-expression in a way that was not always acknowledged or understood by others, but fulfilling nonetheless. Printmaking has been central to how I developed my painting and drawing practice. The technique of producing multiples has enabled me to explore pictorial ideas. These are incorporated into paintings that often evolve into series. I go back and forth between the two - printing and painting - making consistent use of mono-printing to experiment and build up a collection of material. I enjoy the way successive prints become richer, more complex as they gain different textures and features and I rely on the repetitive process to allow the random or happy accident to disrupt the pursuit of the perfect print. Excitement comes from being able to allow a work to shape itself. Equipped with a collection of printed images, I approach the canvas with a broad concept that is realised in a course of energetic actions: images are collaged directly onto the canvas or painting is executed from above. I enjoy being guided by the demands of very different materials ranging from acrylic washes or impasto to silver and gold leaf. Through the technique of pressing, sgraffito, collage, brushing, layering and more, I find an image that animates the colours and forms I am working with. My exploratory method of working prevents this abstract work from being over-controlled and simply decorative. The beauty of the random mark may only be subconsciously understood, but it has proved to be a constant source of inspiration. The subconscious is a recurrent theme which I've explored in a more literal series of painting and prints examining the symbolism surrounding female icons of power such as Queen Elizabeth I. As my work became more intuitive I later created a series of paintings merging animal motifs I discovered within ancient Crete's matriarchal societies' goddess worship and I merged these with Jungian archetypes. My latest work returns me to the question of what preverbal meaning I found in the pencil scribbles of my childhood. My various associations with artists groups over the years have lead me to draw together colour and form with performance. In addition to the print workshop I now experiment in the studio with collaborating performance artists, and Miriam Troth founder of (The sea girls). This has resulted in live performance pieces being enacted in the gallery space, surrounded by the paintings in which the act of my earliest drawings of circular page filling is distilled to the meditative concentration of the single spiral. The live enaction of the spiral motion performed in 2005 suggested a kind of trance inducing dance, and helped me draw the audience in to an enhanced relationship to painting. I hope to convey what has been for me, an enchantment with art that has sustained me as a person as well as an artist. Collections Goldsmith Library Sailsbury Libary, John Creasey Collection of Modern Art The Imperial War Museum Private Collections
2019 Dark Lux Installation May 11-12 BEAF festival
2018/19 Artist in Residence ‘Phoneo’ Regin Rumania
2017 Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year selected wildcard winner at Stowe NT
2017 Tate Modern - Summer School Recall Event - The Exchange-
Switch House London May 11/ 14 Film Gravel Brushing Exhibited.
2017 Artist Residence Brisons Veor Cape Cornwall http://capecornwall16.blogspot.co.uk/
2016 Group Exhibition 164Annual Open Exhibition, RWA Art Gallery Bristol,
2016 - Artist in Residence Durlston Country Park, Swanage, Dorset https://www.facebook.com/diane.roberts.733076/videos/10153729462656275/
2016 - DVA Interrogating Projects Exhibition,Allsop Gallery Bridport Durlston Castle Swanage,
2015 - Group Exhibition 163 Annual Open Exhibition, RWA Art Gallery Bristol,
Solo exhibition at Hatch Gallery, Christchurch, Dorset, 'New Lands',
Solo exhibition 'Magical Spaces' SpArc Art Center Bishop Castle, Shropshire,
Group exhibition DVA, The Old Timber Yard , Bridport, Dorset.
2014 - Poole Museum Open, Poole Dorset, 'Real Somerset' A2 Gallery Wells ,The Evolver Price, winners exhibition Atkinson Gallery Millfield School, Street, The Bath Society of Artist ,Victoria Art Gallery Bath, Somerset, 'Sequested Isle', Southampton Art Gallery, Open Print Salisbury Art Center, 'Glimpses' the Young Gallery Salisbury ,'4 by 4 Printmakers 'L'Artishe Gallery Swanage
2013 - Poole Printmakers ,Highcliffe Castle,Hampshire 2012 -Poole Printmakers Rusell Cotes Museum Bournemouh Solo exhibitions 2011 - Paintings as prints the fine divide, Poole Printmakers, 5 Bowling Green Alley, Poole, Dorset, England, BH15 1A
2010 - Dorset Art Weeks Open Studio, The Studio Beach Hut, Bournemouth Beach
2009 - Open Studio, Purbeck Art Week, Holton Lee Artists Studios , Poole, Dorset
2008 - Dorset Arts Weeks, Holton Lee Artists Studios , Holton Heath Poole Dorset
2006 - Open Studio Dorset Arts Weeks 2006 - Out of the spiral, Bournemouth Library, Salisbury Library
2005 - Spiral, Bridport Art Centre 2000 - Watercolour for Everyone, Fordingbridge
1994 - Pageants and Portraits, Worcester City Art Gallery, Worcester
1990 - Offerings to the Goddesses, Quay Art Centre, Isle of Wight
1988 - Elizabeth 1, Milton Keynes Exhibition Gallery, Blackburn City Museum and Art Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery Hull Group exhibitions
2011 - Exhibition of Dorset Printmakers, , White Stones Café Gallery , Easton, Portland. 2011 - Painterly Print, Lighthouse Poole , Poole, Dorset 2011 - Poole Printmakers, The Exchange Gallery , Sturminster Newton, Dorset 2011 - Printmaking Exhibition, White Stones Cafe Gallery, Portland 2011 - Summer Showcase , The digital Design Centre Digital Design Centre, Campus at North Road in Poole 2009 - Forest, The New Forest Centre, Lyndhurst, Hampshire 2009 - Preoccupations, Theatre Royal Winchester, Winchester 2009 - Purbec Art Week 2009, Rollington 2009, Swanage, Dorset 2008 - Dorchester Art Centre Open, Dorchester Hospital, Dorchester, Dorset 2008 - Dorset Arts Weeks, Bournemouth Library, Bournemouth 2008 - Lyme Regis Open Art Competition 2008, The Town Mill Galleries, Lyme Regis, Dorset 2008 - Nights at the Opers House, Bournemouth Central Libarary, Bournemouth, Dorset 2008 - Poole Print Makers, Hanger Farm Arts Centre, Totton, College ,Totton ,Southampton 2008 - Poole Printmakers, White Stones Gallery, Portland Dorset 2008 - Spring Forward 08, Delamore Gallery, Cornwood Devon 2008 - The Art of Water, Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton,Hants 2008 - Trig Point, Study Gallery of Modern Art, Poole Dorset 2007 - 07 Frontier , Study Gallery of Modern Art, Poole Dorset 2007 - Opening of, Bay tree Gallery, Dorset 2007 - Poole Printmakers, white stones Gallery, Portland 2007 - Summer Exhibition, LopLop Gallery Cafe, Poole 2007 - WavyBlue - Spaces, Oval House exhibition space, London 2007 - WavyBlue Mobile Gallery preview, Bournemouth Beach , west, Bournemouth 2006 - 'Art x 5', White Stones Cafe Gallery, Portland 2006 - Laid Bare, Theatre Royal Winchester, Winchester 2005 - Art sway Open 05 ArtSway 2005 - Atrium Gallery, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth 2005 - Drawn from life, Salisbury Playhouse Gallery, Salisbury 2005 - Naked Art, Highcliffe Castle, Christchruch 2005 - Poole Print Makers, White Stones Gallery, Portland 2005 - Poole Printmakers, Salisbury Library, Salisbury 2005 - St Barbe Open, St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington 2004 - Boscombe Arts Festival, Unit 20, Bournemouth 2004 - Dorset Arts Weeks, Poole Printmakers, Study Gallery, Poole 2004 - Performance, Open Exhibiton Lighthouse, Poole 2004 - Poole Printmakers, Fisherton Mill, Salisbury 2004 - Poole Printmakers, Red House , Christchurch 2003 - Hants Art Week Brockenhurst Tutors, Forest Arts Centre, New Milton 1995 - Worlds Women Online, UN 4th World Conference on Women, Beijing, China and Arizona State University 1994 - The Printers Tale, Collins Gallery, Glasgow 1993 - Studio Gallery Annual Shows, Studio Gallery, London (annually until 1998) 1990 - Eighty to Ninety, Aspex, Portsmouth 1986 - Canvas - New British Painters I, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; Milton Keynes Exhibition Gallery 1986 - Out of Isolation, Wrexham Art Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Oldham Art Gallery 1986 - Surveying the Scene, South Hill Park, Bracknell; Aspex, Portsmouth Curated projects 2008 - Nights at the Opers House, Bournemouth Central Libarary, Bournemouth Live/Performance 2010 - Tribute to Robert Smithson 2010, Beach, Bournemouth Beach 2007 - Wave Blue artist group, Boscombe Chine Gardens, Bournemouth 2006 - Spiral Performance(co performer Helen Ward), 4 Public Park Areas in , Bournemouth Intervention 2009 - Iced KUBE, KUBE Gallery for Contemporary Art, Poole, Dorset Artist talks 2009 - FULL FLOW , KUBE gallery for Contemporary Art, Poole, Dorset 2008 - Boscombe Opera House Memories, Southbourne Library, Bournemouth, Dorset 2008 - Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein', Boscombe Library, Bournemouth, Dorset 1998 - Painters BBC south Production 1987 Networked1989 , BBC, I.O.W. Hants Workshops 2012 - Printmaking Family Workshop, Forest Art Center, New Milton, Hants 2011 - Basic Screen Printing, Poole Printmakers Poole Printmakers, Poole 2011 - Free Family Art workshop, Lighthouse poole, Poole 2010 - Mary Shelley Festival, Bournemouth Natural Science Society, Bournemouth 2010 - Prints using Drypoint and Chine Collé, Poole Printmakers, Poole 2009 - Screen Printing, Holton Lee Artists Studios , Poole, Dorset 2008 - Drawn to the Opera House, Boscombe Opers House a free Big Draw event, Bournemouth, Dorset Private commissions 2008 - The 'Mary Shelley', The new JD Wetherspoon's Bar Resturant, Bournemouth, Dorset Public commissions 1982 - The Falkland War Triptych, Imperial War Museum, London Projects 2009 - The Alice Adventure Lyndhurst 2009 , The New Forest Centre, Lyndhurst, Hampshire 2008 - Nights at the Opera House, The opera house Boscombe, Central Library, Bournemouth, Bournemouth, Dorset 2006 - Urbanflow (Infiltrate), Central Gardens, , wavyBlue group, central gardens Bournemouth 2006 - spiral Performance, Public Parks in Bournemouth, Bournemouth Competitions, prizes and awards 2008 - Bournemouth Arts Grant, Bournemouth, Bournemouth 2006 - Bag Award, Bournemouth, Dorset 2005 - Mentee, Artsmatrix, Dorset , Bournemouth, Bournemouth Site specific 2010 - Dorset Art Weeks, Studio Beach Hut, Bournemouth 2009 - Larmer Tree Festival, Larmer Tree Festival, dorset Publications 2007 - The Public Catalogue Foundation,Imperial War Museum 2006 - Featured, Artist's Newsletter Other 2008 - Dorset Arts Weeks, Dorset Visual Arts, Bournemouth 2007 - 'Making a New World', Christie's, London 2007 - Publication of image, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford 2006 - Black spiral a sola plate etching, Sailsbury Libary, John Creasey Collection of Modern Art - Sturminster Newton Mill video, The Dorset Museum ,Dorchester