The Undiscovered Artist

From her beautifully renovated home at the top of Luz, with its clean white interiors and bird’s-eye view of the ocean, Dianne Jeffery has been creating extraordinary pieces of art. Remarkably, her paintings remained hidden until she invited Tomorrow magazine to her home, and her art, like the view, really took our breath away.

I am sitting in Dianne´s tranquil living room. Its minimalist interiors feel like they have been created to display her work. “I was drawn to this house by the light,” she acknowledges. “The light is so much stronger here in the Algarve and you get more intense colours, which is why I am now using more vibrant colours in my work.” Her entire house feels like a blank canvas on which she displays her talents, which is a good thing as currently her four walls are the only place her works of art are visible; no one (apart from her nearest and dearest) has ever seen them.

My eyes are drawn to a framed image of John Lennon, which captures the essence of the music icon. As I look closer, I realise how clever it is. Despite being immediately obvious who it is, Dianne has drawn very few lines of his face while still capturing his unique features.

For Dianne, art and music have become somewhat interwoven, so her art doesn’t just embody her artistic talent but also her lifelong love of music. Dianne´s father was a musician, so she was exposed to various musical genres from a young age. “My sister was five years older than me, so I got into the Doors and Janice Joplin through her, and I can still remember the first time I heard the Beatles at age five. And my parents took me to lots of concerts, symphonies and operas. I think all this feeds your artistic sole.” Her preferred music genres are vast and varied, and she is intrigued by all manner of music, but I notice from her art that she is a fan of American blues music. She also has some fantastic works of icons, such as David Bowie and Elton John.

As well as musicians, she is fascinated with the human face, especially subjects with distinctive or asymmetrical features. She finds that everyone’s face tells a story. Some of her most striking portraits are of the actress Noomi Rapace, who plays Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

She also enjoys drawing birds, specifically crows, and has created a series of bird pictures that perfectly represent their characteristics and soaring flight.

Dianne can easily lose herself in her art and spend hours simply painting. Her creations are the result of her studies, combined with her imagination. She gives me an example of her process in drawing Amy Winehouse. “She was so talented I think I would like to try to do a piece about her and I’ll study her photos and then listen to her music.” She finds the eyes to be the most complicated part, but she found this talent when she did life drawing. To her, eyes are the most crucial part of a painting. “The eyes are able to convey emotion, experience and a whole life story. The eye is the window to the soul.”

Dianne´s path to this unique art perspective was a complicated one. Born in Saskatchewan and raised in Vancouver, her natural talent was scouted from a young age, and, in elementary school, she gained recognition from a teacher. She continued attending art classes in high school, however,  she admits she never fulfilled her potential and trained as a nurse. In the late 1970s, a tragedy had a positive effect on Dianne: when one of her patients died, his wife offered Dianne his oil paints as a gift.

After starting painting again, she took her creations to a local art curator, who told her to go to art school. She enrolled in 1988 but only attended for a year. Studying was just too much for her at that time, with her husband travelling with work, two small children, and working. But during this period, she exercised her creative talent with a local church and her children’s high school. 

Dianne also designed large, detailed sculptures of angels with graphite pencils, which were transformed into stained glass windows. She also created numerous large-scale paintings and banners which were hung in her church.  With two children, she designed and painted sets for high school productions. A series of photorealistic drawings of the male form with conte pencil followed. Dianne believes that a creative soul always needs an outlet. “If it doesn’t come out, I think you have issues with depression and this is why I think I was drawn into set design for my kids´ school.” After breaking her back, she left nursing and began working in secondary and elementary schools from 1989 to 2017.

It was a family bereavement which made Dianne reimmerse herself in the world of art and she attended Kwantlen University (Fine Arts) from 2016 to 2019. She retired from work in 2017. In 2019, Dianne’s husband Bill was transferred by his employer to Chicago for three years. While in Chicago, she sought to attend the art institute, but it was prohibitively expensive as a non-national. So, she embarked on her own intensive art education and, as a member of the art institute, she was able to use the library. There she encountered Alex O´Keefe, who also worked at the art school, and this was destiny´s chance to finally set Dianne on her creative path.

One day, Dianne found the courage to show Alex her work. She was impressed and took Dianne on as a project, directing and guiding her to what she should study in art history. This friendship was a monumental moment in Dianne´s journey to becoming an artist, a journey which had been thwarted so many times. Then came the pandemic, and with Dianne´s husband working in PPE, he was working seven days a week, and Dianne just immersed herself in her art, which she found to be a cathartic process.

The official terminology for her style would be contemporary portraiture, but it goes further than that as Dianne incorporates mixed media into her works, specifically old newsprint. Why does she paint on the printed word? “Music can move you and the lyrics are very powerful.” She uses the lyrics of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’  as an example. “Think of how powerful those words have been and the effect they have had on the world. Also, in my studies, I found a sketchbook where artists had drawn on top of the printed word and I liked the concept. I  read a lot and I find the spoken word very compelling, so I guess this is why this process resonates with me.”

Dianne has developed an innovative process to transfer the print onto watercolour paper: soft gel gloss is spread onto watercolour paper and the printed words are pressed face-down into the gel gloss, transferring it to the paper. Like an alchemist, Dianne has also worked out a way of using rust to add additional layering to her art. She sprays rusted pieces of iron with a mixture of vinegar and water, sprinkled with both fine salt (to help the transfer process) and coarse salt (to provide texture and interest).

When she paints, she feels she goes into her brain’s right hemisphere. This hemisphere is separate from analytical thought. Instead, she instinctively knows what will look better and what colour will work with that concept. For her, painting has become a way to direct feelings and has taken on the role of healing. 

Dianne moved to Portugal in January 2022, as she and Bill wanted to leave Chicago and were looking for a warm climate to retire. A work colleague of her husband recommended looking at Portugal. During COVID, she hadn’t seen her daughter and grandson, who were living in the UK, so they decided to meet in Portugal for a holiday. During the break, they all fell in love with the Algarve, and now Dianne, Bill and her daughter and grandson all live close to each other.

“I feel as though my entire life changed as we crossed the ocean. Our quality of life changed positively and continues to do so with each passing season. I feel much happier and a lot more content. There is so much we love about Portugal – the gorgeous weather, the summer heat, the sun, the sea, the food, the people, the lifestyle.  We are so blessed to live here.”

Of course, when beginning this interview, I assumed that Dianne was interested in promoting the sale of her innovative pieces to the general public. On the contrary, she does not sell her work and no one, apart from friends and family – and now, Tomorrow readers – have viewed her collection! “My interest is always in the creative process. I have never had an interest in selling it or attending craft shows. But I now think I have enough work, so I would like to find a representative who can display some of my most recent work.” 

I am not an art expert, but I imagine that such fascinating images of an array of global icons would be very commercial. Is Dianne an undiscovered genius? Well, that is up to you, but if you are in the art world, then you might want to get in touch with Dianne to help her display some of her hidden gems. 

Readers can contact Dianne at: my.art2@yahoo.com 

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