Featured in the image sequence (right) are a body of oil paintings on canvas and linen, which are 60" x 60", from the Master of Fine Art project entitled:
Painted Pools: A Lens into Subjectivity.

The project is an investigation of visual metaphor: specifically, the metaphorical potential of images of water, from evocations of tranquil river pools to those of open sea. Within this framework the project seeks to reconcile images of the particular with the universal: how specificity of place can possess a universality of meaning and how one’s own personal history can oscillate within this framework.

With imagery that begins in abstraction and moves into representation the project aims to present painted images of water that may induce a reflective or meditative frame of mind in the viewer, one that is akin to a common response to water itself.

It is posited that an artist’s art practice is driven by a search for meaning, and in this instance it has been a rite of passage. Paradoxically, however, this research does not realize solutions to various challenges but is an expression of these challenges. Such a motivation – this search for meaning – is essentially subjective.

Commonly seen to co-exist on the surface of water are reflections of light from above and beyond, and embedded forms below and within the water. This dichotomous simultaneity may, it is suggested, be an allegory of our existence –
of love and loss, of life and death.

Water is a metaphor for life. Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her book, Women Who Run with the Wolves, writes how water as this ‘creative force flows over the terrain of our psyches looking for the natural hollows, the arroyos, the channels that exist in us. We become its tributaries, its basins; we are its pools…’ The body and the painted object are virtual pools. Thus, it is an aim of the research that the painted images may serve as more than representations of water per se, but that they may also evoke notions of memory, experience and consciousness.

Relevant artists are Caspar David Fredrich, Edvard Monk, Mark Rothko, Peter Booth, Pat Steir, Jennifer Bartlett and the late images of water by impressionist Claude Monet have been important references.
The project has been further shaped by research into other disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy, theology and science, in particular quantum physics. The main art-theoretical context for this project is romanticism, as both an historical movement and as a persistent contemporary orientation.

In 1987, Destanne earned a BFA (Honors) Degree in Painting & Drawing from University of Victoria.

After ten years of raising a young family and managing a cabin resort in Jasper National Park, Destanne began to pursue her passion for painting full-time.


Primarily an oil painter of landscapes, her practice and work was based upon her direct experiences in nature while on adventures into wilderness and natural environment areas.


She was very fortunate to have Doris McCarthy, one of Canada’s highly regarded landscape painters as a mentor, and also contemporary landscape painter, David Alexander.

Destanne partook in various workshops and art in residence programs. As her career progressed, she became represented by three galleries in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan and participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in both public and commercial galleries. In addition to various special projects, her paintings were purchased by many international private collectors and may be found in corporate collections, including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Consulate General in Japan.

Destanne’s love of a challenge and the journey led her to leave the Rocky Mountains in 2003 to pursue post-graduate research at the University of Tasmania in Australia (www.utas.edu.au).


One of the four strengths of the University is Wilderness and Natural Environment Studies, where a strong link and concentration exists in the University of Tasmania School of Art.


While living and studying in Hobart, Destanne exhibited her paintings at the Entrepot Gallery at the University of Tasmania and in a group exhibition entitled, Propinquity and Distance, at the Carnegie Gallery in Hobart.

Upon returning to Canada in 2006, Destanne moved to Vernon, British Columbia, where she now lives.

She is currently completing her Master of Fine Art Degree, while operating her business, .

In 2007, her painting, Distance, was chosen for Green, Gallery Vertigo’s annual juried member’s exhibition.

You can find Destanne's paintings at Gallery Odin, (www.galleryodin.com). She is a member of artist operated Gallery Vertigo,
North Okanagan Artists Alternative(www.galleryvertigo.com)
And the Vernon Public Art Gallery
(www.galleries.bc.ca/vernon)

Destanne accepts commissions and welcomes any inquiries.
destanne.norris@ubc.ca