Diana Dabinett: Liminal Spaces

Christina Parker Gallery is pleased to announce Liminal Spaces, an exhibition of new paintings by Diana Dabinett. The exhibition will open with an artist reception on Friday, Mar. 28 from 6–8pm, and will continue until Apr. 19. Music at the opening reception will be provided by Kira Sheppard.

Download the Visual Catalogue

“Ideas, like waves, have fetches. They arrive with us having travelled vast distances, and their pasts are often invisible, or barely imaginable.”
—Robert Macfarlane

Liminal spaces are places of transition, where we move from one place to another. They can also be psychological, such as when you feel you are on the verge of something new, or the period between sleep and wakefulness. Liminal comes from the Latin word for “threshold”, and can also be used to describe something barely perceptible.

After 46 years living on the East Coast Trail in Shoe Cove I moved to St. John’s. Almost all of my life I have lived close to the natural environment which has been the focus of my artwork, but this move created a need for me to refocus my subject matter from the boreal forest and Atlantic cliffs to an urban environment. In an effort to relocate myself, I began to photograph Dawn from my bedroom window. For exercise I walked, exploring the streets around my new home and the many beautiful trails along the city’s waterways.

In addition to my egg tempera paintings of Dawn, this body of work includes many large and small acrylics of various views along the city trails. My focus was on the movement of water as it progressed turbulently towards the sea, but I became aware of the many passing walkers along the paths. In these paintings you can see the ephemeral, almost mystical presence of people as they pause and move along. The rushing waters of the rivers are always there, but the visitors only leave a slight spiritual interruption. In these works I have used layers of crushed Mulberry Bark paper and heavy gel medium to create the rough texture of the undergrowth and rocks.

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is, in the eyes of others, only a green thing that stands in the way.”
—William Blake

Sometimes journeys are made for pleasure. There are times when journeys are more significant and are unavoidable. Such journeys are an escape or migration away from political turmoil. Such was my move from Zimbabwe in 1966 to England and eventually Canada. Although we choose to make these moves, they leave a persistent sense of displacement and dislocation and continue to colour the whole fabric of a life. On looking back at my body of work over the 50 years I have lived in Newfoundland and practised as a full-time professional artist, I can see this sense of displacement in my work.

I have focused on themes exploring the underwater ocean world, the fragility of plants in the environment, the exposure of geological formations and, more recently, the movement of the air and light over the landscape. My first geological inspiration came from the many trails I explored in Gros Morne Park in my residency there in 2001, my residency in Terra Nova Park several years later, but also the many journeys I made up the north Labrador coast in 1996-7 as a Canada Council Artist in the Community in Hopedale, Makkovic, Sheshatshiu and Rigolet.

The movement of water has been a recurring subject for me. A number of years ago I was commissioned by the Fluvarium to paint the journey of a droplet of rain water from the start of a river to the ocean, with the wildlife above and below the water along the way. More recently I was commissioned to paint a 40-foot backdrop for the displays about the geology of the Manuels River for their new Interpretation Centre. In 2004 I went with a group led by Joe Goudie to canoe for 8 days down the Churchill River from Churchill Falls to the Gull Island Rapids and made a fabric work based on this experience.

I have had many solo exhibitions, some of which toured through Eastern Canada. Fabric Fish, Silken Shorelines, Tropical Garden/Newfoundland Stream, and Pathways (a two person show with Tara Bryan). My work has been exhibited by Christina Parker Gallery in regular solo and group exhibitions. I have been commissioned to produce bodies of work internationally in Monterey Community Hospital in California and the Labrador Hospital in Goose Bay, the Fluvarium in St. John’s, and Manuels River Interpretation Centre. I am represented in provincial, national and international collections, including the Royal Collection in the United Kingdom. In 2001 I was juried into an exhibition by the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour to present artwork to the Royal Collection. An exhibition was held in Canada House in London, England where we met Prince Charles and discussed our work with him. I presented him with a copy of Castles in the Sea, All About Icebergs, written by Lawrence Jackson and illustrated by my artwork.

—Diana Dabinett, March 2025

Diana Dabinett’s CV

Diana Dabinett Brochure