DIANE LANGLOIS

A former university professor, artist Diane Langlois now devotes herself to painting the remote regions of the world: the Arctic and Antarctic, the peaks of the Canadian Rockies, and the remote regions of the Namibia and Sonoran deserts. By focusing on the landscapes and animals of these largely uninhabited areas, Langlois conveys the experience of visiting parts of the world most people will never see in person. Her paintings are not just compelling nature scenes, however — as Langlois explains, they capture the social, cultural, scientific and economic stresses placed on these fragile environments and ecosystems. In this way, her work combines art with social and cultural science. The artist’s goal in painting the polar regions is not so much to stir up controversy as to make people aware of contemporary issues affecting the far-flung environments of the planet.

Diane Langlois started painting while on sabbatical and never looked back. She says she prefers paint over other mediums like photography because it’s “a vocation of the soul,” one with an ancient history that requires skill, discipline, insight and wisdom.