Paintings by Diana Hand

I have always worked with dye on fabric, but I am now experimenting with acrylic and oil paint as an alternative source of colour.

I have taken time out over past two years and studied with several wonderful teachers, in particular Cynthia Bowles at Glasgow School of Art, Alan McGowan, Pauline Agnew and Martin Campos.  Now in my third year I am beginning to feel more confident about handling paint and finding my language.  There is a satisfying awareness that engaging in paint is an endless ever-changing interactive process between mind, experiences, hands and materials.

“Life? was what you worked to catch, the intense happiness of an object slightly set apart from you.

Painting? was what you did, alone, and you sat there, and it was your own terrible fight or your own lovely bit, but it was really terribly alone.

To take the moment before something had actually happened, and you didn’t know if it was going to be terrible or if it might be very funny, something extraordinary actually happening and yet everybody about it not taking any notice at all.”

Ali Smith AUTUMN  p. 252.

In my textile work, I used the dye in a very expressive and abstract way.  It has been challenging for me to translate that freedom into paint, and I am having to learn how to use paint in a traditional way before I feel free enough to experiment.  The great benefit is the option of increased control over the medium as well as the option to rework.