Diana Thomson FRSS (born 1939) is an English sculptor. She has created public sculptures by commission, which stand in locations in Britain.

Life

Thomson was born in Manchester, and studied at Kingston Polytechnic from 1976 to 1979. She has exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

and elsewhere. She was elected an associate of the

Royal Society of Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors (RSS) is a British charity established in 1905, which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, Lo ...

in 1981, and a fellow in 1990."Diana Thomson"

Art UK Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 300,000 paintings, sculptures and other artworks by more than 53,700 artists. It was found ...

. Retrieved 24 January 2024."Diana Thomson FRSS"
Royal Society of Sculptors. Retrieved 24 January 2024. She was married to the cinematographer Alex Thomson, who died in 2007; they had a daughter. "Diana Thomson"
''Silver Wood Books''. Retrieved 25 January 2024.

Works

Thomson has said that "the human figure is the best way that I can express myself in my sculpture... I kept to my own themes and expressions during training, and beyond in my public commissions". Her works include the following: A sculpture "Father and Child" was shown at the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1982. A statue of

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

stands in the grounds of the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

. A bust of Lawrence, relating to the statue, is at

Newstead Abbey Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, England, was formerly an Augustinian priory. Converted to a domestic home following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it is now best known as the ancestral home of Lord Byron. The Abbey is on the national ...

, Nottinghamshire. "The Swanmaster", in

Staines-upon-Thames Staines-upon-Thames, also known simply as Staines, is a market town in northwest Surrey, England, around west of central London. It is in the Borough of Spelthorne, at the confluence of the River Thames and River Colne, Hertfordshire, Colne. ...

, was commissioned by Spelthorne Borough Council and unveiled in 1983. It is a bronze statue, height . Brentford

"The Bargemaster", unveiled in 1990, was commissioned by

Dell EMC EMC Corporation (stylized as EMC²) was an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, which sold data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, cloud computing and other products and services th ...

, and stands in front of their building in

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

. The bronze statue, height , of a bargemaster celebrates the long association of Brentford with the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

."The Bargemaster"
Art UK. Retrieved 24 January 2024. A bronze statue of

William Friese-Greene William Friese-Greene (born William Edward Green, 7 September 1855 – 5 May 1921) was a prolific English inventor and professional photographer. He was known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures, having devised a series of cameras bet ...

was unveiled on 15 January 1999 at

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of Pinewood Group, the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not ...

. A children's book, ''A Story for the Children of Today'', written and illustrated with watercolour paintings by Thomson, was published in 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Diana 1939 births Living people Artists from Manchester 20th-century English sculptors 21st-century English sculptors Alumni of Kingston University Fellows of the Royal British Society of Sculptors 20th-century English women sculptors 21st-century English women sculptors