Daina Lee Deblette ✨ Helping people become fully expressed.

Hi, I’m Daina.

For more than 22 years I’ve helped people reconnect with themselves through creativity.
On the surface, I teach art.
In reality, I’ve always been helping people learn to trust themselves.

I’ve watched thousands of people walk into my rooms pre-apologizing, insisting they weren’t creative, afraid to make a mistake, convinced they weren’t “good enough.” Then as we begin, something shifts. They stop trying to get it right. They ease in to becoming more present. They leave a little lighter, more joyful than when they arrived.

That’s why I believe creativity is never just about making art.
It’s about becoming more fully expressed.

I grew up along the Kapuskasing River in Northern Ontario, where my parents taught me to notice the world around me. We watched the northern lights dance across the sky, listened to the river roar as the spring ice broke apart, and enjoyed endless summers exploring forests, waterways and observing wildlife. That’s where I first learned that wonder isn’t something we find. It’s something we get to embody.

That sense of wonder and attunement to nature has stayed with me.

I studied photography and figure drawing at NSCAD University before teaching myself to paint in 2003. What began as curiosity ignited a lifelong practice.

Since then, I’ve taught thousands of students throughout North and Central America, opened galleries and studios, exhibited my work, and built Ocean Art Studio into a place where people come to learn far more than colour theory or brush techniques. They come to remember who they are.

Over the years, my work naturally expanded beyond art.

I became a coach, mentor and registered therapeutic counsellor because I wanted to understand why some people move through fear while others stay stuck. 

Again and again, I found myself returning to the same question:
What helps someone trust themselves enough to create the life they’re here to live?

That question continues to shape everything I create today.

Whether you’re picking up a paintbrush for the first time, joining The Art of the Start, or exploring one of my courses or resources, my intention is always the same:

That you leave feeling more connected with yourself than when you arrived.

Because I believe the world doesn’t need more people trying to fit in.

It needs more people becoming fully expressed.

Welcome.

I’m glad you’re here.