About Me
Wherever (wo)men are noble, they love bright colour and wherever they can live healthily, bright colour is given them in sky, sea, flowers and living creatures! Ruskin, On Poppies, from Proserpina.
I’m a lifelong learner and graduated with an MA Illustration (Distinction) from Falmouth University in September 2024, enjoying every minute of it - here I am changing into my comfy shoes at my graduation! In formative years, I won a highly prized place on the BA Printed Textiles course at Manchester Polytechnic and focused on drawing and creativity, following up with Design Processes, Products and Innovation at The Open University, eventually earning a BSc (Hons).
I’ve worked in Publishing - mostly Copyright - and an Image Library at a major art museum where vibrant colours of works from the Pre-Raphaelite movement, fleeting scenic views of the Impressionists and highly detailed studies by Botanical Painters were inspirations. I've also worked freelance for a textile agent and my designs were taken to international shows such as Heimtex in Frankfurt and Surtex in New York.
My current creativity is process driven, combined with analogue materials such as gouache and pen. I follow biophilic principles, ‘biophilia’ meaning ‘love of life’, using natural colours, surfaces and light, often taking works outside for the elements to work their own magic. I make one-off originals and digital reproductions for fashion and homewares - an environmentally clean way of working - proud to carry on tradition as part of a long ancestral line of craftspeople.
Nature, the Fen Landscape and Norfolk Coast provide inspiration, contrasting with my urban Manchester roots. I encourage reconnection with nature, which according to studies, is vital for wellbeing. In this, I identify with the ideals of The Arts & Crafts Movement, set up to counteract the effects of The First Industrial Revolution. Our current situation, The Fourth Cyber Revolution, is similar to that of the first in that this time round, we need rest from electronic media.
In 2025 I exhibited in Spring Fever with The West Norfolk Artists Association at Chequer House Gallery, King's Lynn and in 2024 I was selected for Sensing Nature at The Babylon Gallery, Ely. In 2019, I was a finalist from over 5,000 entries in the Liberty Open Call search for the best untapped textile design in the UK and as a textiles student, I won a competition with prestige manufacturers Fox for my umbrella cover design.
Selected Exhibitions
Heritage Day Group Exhibition, WNAA, The Mayor's Parlour, King's Lynn, 2025.
Sshhh! Secret Auction, Cromer Artspace, 2025.
Online Gallery, Artist of the Year, Society for All Artists, 2025.
Spring Fever, WNAA, Chequer House Gallery, King's Lynn, 2025.
Staff Gallery, The Wellbeing Centre, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, 2025.
Flora and Fauna, Cockington Court, Devon, UK, 2024.
Sensing Nature, Babylon Gallery, Ely, 2024.
Christmas Shop, Babylon Gallery, Ely, 2024.
@dianehudsonsharpe
Behance
https://www.behance.net/dianehudson-
Societies
West Norfolk Artists Association www.westnorfolkartists.org
Society For All Artists www.saa.co.uk
The Textile Society www.textilesociety.org.uk