‘What inspires me to make art?” asks Australian artist, Diana Watson. “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. I love Picasso’s quote…”

‘The purpose of art is to wash the dust off everyday life from our souls’ – Pablo Picasso.

Diana was born she’d-rather-not-say years ago in Perth, Western Australia, and attended Perth College with eminent art teacher Robert Juniper, later graduating in Fine Art and Commercial Art in Perth Technical College. Since then she has established herself as one of the country’s leading artists, with many exhibitions throughout Australia, Europe and the USA, her work also being held in private collections in Hong Kong and the Middle East.

She uses flowers, among other things, as subject matter to tell us how she feels about the world around her, and she does it so well that, even if incapable of seeing beyond the beauty of the flowers themselves, we know how she feels about the world, and we feel it too. This is, in a way, a definition of great art.

“Many women artists have influenced me over the years. Rachel Ruysch (1643-1706) and her Dutch flowers along with the vastness of Australian scenery have combined to produce my oversized paintings. Georgia O’Keeffe is one whose story is an inspiration and, of course, Sidney Nolan is an Australian favourite.” – Diana Watson.