A Retrospective Exhibition Presented with Love, Diane Purdie: Industrial Artist

January 16, 2020 Guest User

Diane Purdie, Self Portrait: 9-1/2 months pregnant, Pastel on Paper (1990).

The year 2020 welcomes a new decade. For most people, a new year means a fresh new start. For some it means looking back to remind us of what truly endures in life year after year—love, friendship, and sharing. Since her passing in 2018, Diane Purdie is still being remembered by her family, friends and community, and through their own initiative and crowdfunding, are mounting a retrospective art exhibition to display Diane’s works.

Having taught art at the Aurora Montessori School and volunteered in the Newmarket area for many years, Diane was widely known to many people by her big personality and big heart. Her laughter, sense of humour, generosity and creativity is what made her shine. There is no better way to describe Diane’s sunny disposition and her contagious energy than by this story of the first encounter between Elena Doytchinova and Diane in the Arrivals Hall of the Toronto Pearson Airport 20 years ago when she first stepped foot in Canada as a new immigrant, single parent who knew no one.

" We were total strangers who just got briefly introduced to each other two weeks prior by another stranger -- a mutual social media acquaintance from ICQ, the Skype of the ’90s. But there she was! Brilliant, tiny, shining, smiling, charismatic and waving! She held up high in the air a formless piece of blue cardboard with my ICQ name ICQ rainbow in huge letters. Right beside her stood her husband John and nine-year old Jamie, holding a bouquet of fresh garden flowers and the label: “Welcome to Canada!” This is how it all started. Instead of just driving us to a hotel, Diane John and Jamie took us to their house and gave us the guest room. And the neighbors on their entire street met us with fireworks and an improvised welcome street party, turned out later - all pre-arranged by Diane! "

Close friend, Elena Doytchinova

An exhibit view of a series of headframes by Diane Purdie.

With a geologist father that worked for Falconbridge and a mother from a copper-mining town, Diane lived in various communities as her father’s work took them across Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. According to husband John Shaw, Diane loved unspoiled nature and enjoyed canoeing just like her hero, Canadian artist Tom Tomson. Equally, Diane had a deep respect for human ingenuity and appreciated the forms of machinery, gears, and buildings. For her, the aboveground structure of a mineshaft—the headframe at each site is as distinctive as any natural landscape feature in a specific town. In this exhibit Diane Purdie: Industrial Artist you will see a wide selection of paintings, prints and other works which celebrate both the workers, tools and their environment.

DIANE PURDIE: INDUSTRIAL ARTIST

Newmarket Old Town Hall (460 Botsford Street) | Serpa Galleries

Gallery Hours: Newmarket.ca/OTHexhibits

Exhibition | January 14 to 26, 2020 | Free Admission

Opening reception | January 17, 2020 | 7 to 10 p.m. All are welcome & Free to attend