Diane Howse approaches painting as a process of discovery. Working directly with oil paint and oil stick on linen, she lets colour, gesture, and material guide each work as layers are built, altered, and partially removed. Forms emerge only through this physical exchange, where vivid and muted tones meet in shifting relationships and marks range from broad sweeps to quick, incisive gestures. Remaining entirely abstract, the layered surfaces invite the viewer’s imagination, prompting fleeting associations that appear and dissolve within the movement of colour and texture. Rooted in a heightened attentiveness to visual experience, Howse’s paintings translate moments of perception into material form, instigating pareidolic visions in the eye of the observer.

Diane Howse studied Fine Art at Exeter College of Art and began her career with Spacex Gallery in the early 1980s. Alongside her own artistic practice, she has worked extensively as a curator, founding the Harewood Contemporary programme at Harewood House Trust in 1989 and co-founding Project Space Leeds in 2006. Her work is held in public and private collections, including the Government Art Collection. Her solo exhibitions include Zigzaggery (2022–23) at Benjamin Rhodes Gallery, London, and Ornament of Dust (2024–25), with a text by Iwona Blazwick, at Vivienne Roberts Projects. She also exhibited in Entre Chien et Loup (2026) at Vivienne Roberts Projects.