Wendy Dison was born in Liverpool, England in 1948. She attended Liverpool School of Art from 1969 to 1972 and was awarded a Diploma in Art and Design. Later in life Wendy also qualified as a teacher.
For many years Wendy thought of herself primarily as a traveller. She has made long, solo journeys in the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Latin America and lived in Spain, Mexico and England before settling in Ireland.
During the years of travel Wendy’s artistic visual outlet was through photography. Back in England between journeys she would give illustrated talks on her adventures and some of her photographs are in the Archive of Tibetan Culture in London.
She has written about her trips in various published articles and for books from Bradt Publications.
Wendy has always drawn, always made art. Her Latin-American travel journals are crammed with evocative sketches recording events, places and people. In the mid 1990s Wendy felt that the time had come to devote time and energy to her art so in 1996 and 1997 she studied etching at the Bluecoat School in Liverpool and started to make original prints.
In 1999 Wendy and her partner moved to West Cork, Ireland and she was able to become a full time artist. Wendy joined Cork Printmakers and did a course with David Kiely on Carborundum, spitbite and drypoint. Although she enjoyed making editioned prints Wendy was drawn to a more painterly approach which she began to explore after studying monotype with American artist Ron Pokrasso at the Santa Reparata School of Art in Florence in 2003.
She recalls saying at that time ‘I think I’m a frustrated painter’.
Incorporating monotype into her work Wendy started to produce series of related images, each one unique and unrepeatable but linked, both thematically and by the use of recurring elements.
Wendy started to exhibit prints at Mill Cove Gallery in 2002 and the gallery director, John Goode urged her to paint. Having been encouraged by the sale of two early pieces to a private collector Wendy made the ‘Mountain Farm’ series of paintings towards the end of 2004. Since that time Wendy Dison has considered herself primarily a painter but she still enjoys the different challenges offered by printmaking and returns to it regularly.
Wendy Dison prints have been exhibited widely in Ireland and as far afield as St. Petersburg, Russia and Queensland, Australia.
A major strand in Wendy’s painting practise is the interpretation of the landscape she sees around her in West Cork every day. She has also focused on rural buildings, often representing them in more or less abstract ways. Both these themes were present in her first solo exhibition of paintings, ‘Home Places’, which took place at Mill Cove Gallery in July 2006.
In November 2005 Wendy was awarded a residency at Cill Rialaig artist’s retreat in County Kerry. During her time there she began to develop a body of work involving painting, printmaking and mixed media under the title ‘Stone Ghosts’. The ideas were pursued at another residency, this time at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in County Monaghan a year later. An exhibition of ‘Stone Ghosts’ took place in February, March and May 2007. The ideas behind the 'Stone Ghosts' show were further developed for a solo exhibition in Liverpool in November 2008. This exhibition. 'Crossing Place' was supported by a grant from Culture Ireland and went on to be shown in London and at The Brindley in Runcorn. 'Crossing Place' can be seen in the gallery section of this website.
Some of the artworks featured on this site have been sold and others may still be available. Please feel free to contact us.
Wendy Dison paintings are represented by The Hallward and Mill Cove galleries.
The copyright to all images and site content is reserved by Wendy Dison.