Dianne Ostoich

Dianne Ostoich was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the lap of the West Coast rainforest. Her early years were spent exploring the myriad paths winding through the woods where she developed a strong love of trees. That love radiates from her work.

Dianne studied at Langara College, the Vancouver School of Art and the University of B.C., and works with oil paints on canvas, as well as oil pastels on rag paper. She likes to paint large canvases reflecting the size of her subject matter, however she also paints vignettes which are still able to evoke the majesty of the forest. Dianne paints the serenity and peacefulness that nature offers us. She invites the viewer into the canvas to walk down the pathways. She especially enjoys the play of light and dark, sunlight and shadow. As you stroll down the paths of her work, you feel the heat of the sun and the coolness of the shadows. Shafts of sunlight filter through dense groves of evergreens. The dance of dappled light and deep shadows creates an almost abstract pattern. The Vancouver General Hospital, who recently added one of Dianne paintings to their collection, has said that her artwork "has a healing quality".

Dianne has been involved with the art world for the past thirty years. In the mid seventies she co-founded Crown Lithographic Printers, which was a custom printing house dedicated to producing high quality hand-pulled original lithographs. Working in close collaboration with such artists as Jack Shadbolt, Leslie Poole, Takao Tanabe and the Haida artist Bill Reid, to name but a few, was a wonderful experience giving insight as to how each individual artist approached their art.

In the mid eighties she opened a gallery in conjunction with the print shop featuring local artists as well as her own work. After running the gallery for fourteen years , the demand for her work made it difficult to manage both, so she now happily concentrates solely on her painting.

Dianne’s works are in many private and corporate collections as well as permanent collections in universities and public museums. However, no matter where her work may ultimately be placed, it is certain that her distinctive forest landscapes are spreading a feeling of relaxation and peacefulness wherever they are seen.