Dide
Oil Painting | Quiet Intensity | Precision & Observation
Dide is a contemporary oil painter whose work combines technical precision with an acute sensitivity to human presence, movement and psychological space. Self-taught during the Covid lockdown, she emerged with remarkable speed and confidence, establishing a practice that has since earned significant recognition across portraiture and figurative painting in the UK and internationally.
Working primarily in oils, Dide builds her paintings through careful observation and control, translating photographic reference into finely structured compositions that feel both grounded and quietly charged. Her approach is rooted in the way she visually processes the world - reducing complexity into shape, light and form - resulting in work that is detailed, exacting and emotionally measured rather than overtly expressive. Painting, for her, is both a disciplined craft and a meditative act.
Her current practice centres on three strands: classical portraiture, figures in motion, and people-less portraits of spaces, objects and shadows. Across all three, there is a shared focus on stillness, pause and the subtle tension between presence and absence. While her work engages directly with the traditions of portrait painting, it remains firmly situated in the contemporary world - observational, unsentimental and quietly narrative.
Dide’s rise has been marked by notable institutional recognition. She has been selected for the National Portrait Gallery Herbert Smith Freehills Award exhibition, twice named a Rising Star by the Royal Society of British Artists, and awarded the Society of Women Artists Young Artist Award alongside an International Tera Varna Talent Prize. Her work has been exhibited widely at venues including Messums, Mall Galleries, the Roundhouse and York Art Gallery, as well as internationally in Istanbul, Venice and Japan. She has also been among Art on a Postcard’s highest-selling artists for International Women’s Day.
Alongside her visual practice, Dide is an accomplished poet and composer, with published poetry collections and collaborations spanning dance, science and contemporary music institutions. While distinct disciplines, this broader creative grounding informs the intelligence and restraint present in her painting.
Dide's work is thoughtful, controlled and quietly assured - paintings that reward close attention and sustained looking, offering contemporary figurative work with depth, clarity and intent.
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