NWT Arts

Diane Boudreau, artist-biologist, living in Yellowknife since 2000. She started to paint insects on t-shirts at the beginning, they are part of the micro-landscape. Diane took her microscope and observed the various species that are up north. Drawing and painting fish, birds and insects gives her the opportunity to travel, participate in festivals and learn about communities.

She is interested in promoting landscape art in the north so started creating animal sculptures with rocks and core samples. She has made numerous ephemeral installations of insects on abandoned sites or hidden in the landscape and uses local materials from the various sites.

Since 2002, Diane requested grants from the NWT Council for the Arts.

The first one was creating 5 big sculptures made of piled rocks and core samples.  There is a fish, made of flat rocks from the shore of Great Slave Lake, a beaver made of core samples and sand, a coleopteran, a caddisfly larvae and a dragonfly made of angular and blasted rocks from construction sites in the surrounding. They are located within the Yellowknife city limits.

In 2003, she received another grant from the NWT Council for the Arts to create a cork raft (4 meters by 4 meters) with a caddisfly larvae on top of it. She had been collecting the corks since 1993 and gathered 17,600 corks to built the raft. She tries to combine together what she learned in environmental design, biology and entomology. 

From 2009 to 2014 she received grants to give workshops in more than 25 communities in NWT painting fish and birds. A collection of paintings is ready to travel to show the work done with the kids.

From 2014-2024, she kept doing murals at her outdoor studio and she is well known to paint plywood fish and promote outdoor art.

She gave many workshops to kids, friends, literacy council students and kids from immigration and workshops for Ramble & Ride every year.

She succeeded to have an outdoor studio from 2004 until now corner of 50th street and 52nd avenue in Yellowknife. She is still there but at 68, it is time to modify the practice. Who know what will be the continuity?

• Artist-biologist, multi-media, designer and landscape artist.
• Born in 1956, Valleyfield, Québec. In Yellowknife since June 2000 

Studies: 

• 1976-1979 Interior design, Dawson College, Montréal.
• 1982-1985 Environmental design, Université du Québec à Montréal.
• 1991-1995 Biology and entomology, Université du Québec à Mtl 
• 1999-2000 Créativité at Université de Montréal.

Apprentiship: 

• 2000 Traditional art of Bogolan in Mali, Africa.
• 1988-2002 Autocad in architecture, Montréal.
• 1988-90 Scenic painter at Radio-Canada, Montréal.
• Spanish immersion in Peru, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua and Spain. 

Documentary videos about my work in Yellowknife 

• 2019 UnisTV Arts et Culture ‘’De par chez nous’’ https://www.tv5unis.ca/videos/de-par-chez-nous/
saisons/4/ episodes/6
• 2018 https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1139167/artiste-yellowknife-public-boudreau-atelierculturel? fbclid=IwAR2EiD4ZGONqb_daBruQGYLCA0Qy04NqahfbEuLrTlzxjNHNCTL0CqWeM6w 
• 2017 https://www.tv5unis.ca/le-gout-du-pays/saisons/3/episodes/1
• 2012 Tout TV: C’est ça la vie: http://www.tou.tv/c-est-ca-la-vie/S2012E10 

Exhibits, festivals and workshops 

•2025 outdoor studio was closed in September 2025
•2021-2022-2023-2024-2025 workshops downtown Yellowknife and various exhibits
•2020 6 big murals about medicinal plants, grant from ITI and exhibited in N’Dilo and Dettah 
•2019 Public art and immigration with Literacy Council and Immigration en français
•2019 Mural on LAM building in Yellowknife
•2018 Mural of locals insects with various families with a grant from NWT Arts Council 
•2018 Painting of big insects on an electric box on Niven drive 
•2018 BAM, mural of 6 panels with the collective plus a vidéo by WAMP 360’ 
•2017 Painting of big fish on an electric box in front of the Wild Cat café 
•2016 Painting of animals on an electric box close to the museum
•2001-2018 Open Sky Festival in Fort Simpson begining of July 

•2009-2017 Summer workshops in 23 communities in NWT, grant from NWT Arts Council 

• 2009 to 2015 Participation to the GNAF in Inuvik. Workshops and exhibits.
•2015 one day exhibit at the museum with Jessica Mc Vicker on october 2015.
•2014-25 Participation to Ramble and Ride.
•2014 solo exhibit at ARCC october 2014. 
•2014-2018 Participation to Harvest festival in Fort Simpson
•2014 FOTR festival, musical instruments workshops with AFCY in jul
•2014 Painting workshop with Literacy council from june to august.
•2014 Bird painting workshop in may. Grant from Aurora Arts Society.
•2013 Collection of 10 locals birds from Yellowknife area. Grant from Aurora Arts Society. Outdoor 
exhibit. 
•2013 Species at Risk workshops in Yellowknife, exhibit at the museum and ARCC building june 15th 
&16th. 
•2011-2012 Participation to workshops with the Breast Cancer Program in Yellowknife
•2010 Exhibit at the visitor Centre the collection of core sample boxes.
•2011 Workshop in Cape Dorset in august for a program against suicide: birds paintings and exhibit. 
•2009-2011 Participation to the AAS collective mural. Mural exhibit on 51ave and 51 st. in Yellowknife 
•2009 Ivvavik national park with 6 artists, north of Yukon. Traveling exhibit.
•2009 Collection of 12 painted core samples boxes with the support of NWT Arts Council.
•2008 12 big fish were painted with the help of immigrant kids from Maurice Island.
•2008 Participation to the Winter Arctic Game in Yellowknife. Workshops and exhibit in the Fed 
building. 
•2001-2014 Exhibits with Aurora Art Society for Arts week every year
•2008 to 2010 Paintings murals in Tela, Honduras to support a local cultural centre & a collection of 
birds. •2006-2008 Participation to the Gnaf first video. Two videos with Dennis Allen
•2004 to 2013 Urban art in Yellowknife. Public art on the Yellowknife Inn wall. Outdoor exhibit.
•2004 to 2016 Participation to Ecology North public auction. Donation of a painting /year.
•2004 A giant dinosaure was painted for John Alexcander’s museum.
•2004 Opening of an outdoor studio corner of 50th St and 52nd avenue. Installation of a frozen 
forest at -35 degrés on a private land.
•2003 Construction of a raft with a resting caddisfly (12,000 wine corks)
•2003 Nunavut arts festival in Iqaluit and in Rankin Inlet in 2004
•2001-2002 Land art with core samples, rocks and insects in Yellowknife. Outdoor exhibit.
•2002 Illustration of 21 plants for Nahanni park publication.
•2002 Exhibit of acrylic painting on wood at Fort Smith Museum.
•2002 First prize in a competition about Industrial Heritage. Exhibit organized by the city of 
Yellowknife. 

Home made Vidéos

•2007 Organizing a workshop for 12 Wamp members with Dennis Allen, an Inuvik filmmaker as a 
guest. •2005 Video about the construction of a federal building in YK. 2.5 minutes.
•2004 12 minutes video about the urban art shop.
•2004 11 minutes video about life in the bush in a winter camp.
•2004 Workshop in Winnipeg with NFB about documentary and video in February.
•2004 Short video about the ‘’frozen forest’’ at -35’ in YK.
•2003 13 minutes video about the making of the raft and the caddisfly.
•2003 3 minutes video about French conversation lessons and collage.
•2002 9 minutes video about 5 rock sculptures in Yellowknife: ‘’when the mineral becomes animal’’. 

Member of Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife and Ecology North . In the past: WAMP , 
Aurora Arts Society, ARCC. 

To be an artist in the North is to be exposed to new cultures and new materials, it also gives a continuity 
to my artistic life with another tangent. I try to combine elements in my environment and link them with 
art projects. I work for the promotion of public art. The local resources are important in the composition 
of my work. My environmental design background is activated in a way to relate what I learned in 
biology and in art. Sometimes it takes time, it depends of the focus of my observations at various scale, 
the microscopic, the macroscopic (maps and aerial views) and what I see with open eyes. The resistance 
of the elements help me to understand other limits in the landscape above the 60th parallel. 
Small, fast and ephemeral installations are very important to do because they generate clues to more 
ideas. Taking pictures of those exercises is necessary to keep the memories of the ephemeral. They can 
influenced the next project. I am a generalist and consider that art possess the quality of a language to 
express ideas and the overflow of those ideas. Combining art and recycling shows the challenge between 
nature and culture. 
Living in the North modifies my level of observations so I became aware of the complexity of this 
environment. NWT Arts Council are very supportive of my projects since 2002. I greatly appreciate their 
constant support