Painting Holidays 2020

I have found that getting away from it all to a top class painting venue where you are waited on, nearly hand and foot, releases the creative juices and embeds the learning in a short time, which might normally take months to acquire.

So my next painting holidays, provided through the excellent Alpha Painting Holidays, focus on my strengths and on those subjects which enable people to either earn from their creative gifts or to give gifts to those close to them.

The first is in May, my bed and butter for the last 15 years and its the ever popular Animal Portraits. We do at least two paintings, one set by me and the other the choice of the student and we do them in parallel so the learning is quickly applied and embedded to what the student wants to do.

http://www.alphapaintingholidays.com/AlphaPaintingHolidays_HolidayDetails_DaveWhite_WyeValley_May2020.html#nav_20_B1

The second is in October and my favourite subject to paint, Sea and Sky in Acrylics! If you have trouble painting clouds or skies, waves or beaches this is the holiday for you.

http://www.alphapaintingholidays.com/AlphaPaintingHolidays_HolidayDetails_DaveWhite_WyeValley_October2020.html#nav_20_B1

Books

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The 2018 sales figures have come in for my latest books and Sea and Sky has now sold over 23,000 over the last 2 years whilst Painting Dog Portraits has sold 2000 in its first 3 months!! The feedback has been wonderful and challenging as students want to know how to improve their projects.

If you have bought a copy and would like to share your project endeavours from the books then please post them to my facebook page The Artist Dave White. Or if you would like a personalised copy then please email me.

So my teaching journey continues and I look forward to seeing how it develops.

November 2018 Painting Holiday

I know that a lot of people start planning their next years holiday when it turns colder and its starts getting darker. It started to do that!! So here’s an opportunity you might like to consider. Following the launch of my new book in October 2018, I will be leading an exclusive, how to paint Animal Portraits painting holiday in the beautiful Wye Valley. I say exclusive as it will be the first time I will be dedicating 3 whole days to teaching what I do to a select group of people. If you would like to be one of them, then please click on the link and get your name down as soon as possible. Places are limited and already there are bookings being made, so don’t delay!!!!!!!!!!!Animal Portraits Painting Holiday

Commissions

Life has been busy! The commissions keep coming and they are getting bigger! These absolute beauties are on an enormous 140 x 100 cms aluminium stretchered canvas. It took us something like 6 months to do and it was an absolute joy to capture!

Russian Blues

For someone who is generally allergic to cats, these guys and gals were a real pleasure! Once we got over who was who and sorted out who was in which photo and what relationship who had with who, the girls ended up together and the boys too! Its the eyes though which were fascinating because, depending on the light, the eyes could change from a deep green to a luscious blue. We plumbed for the green bias which allowed a yellow highlight. A cut glass breed of cat so I put them on a glass surface.

Pip

Pip was a pleasure to paint for some good friends who are as docile and yet can be as equally exciteable as their dog!! The problems with painting him were minimal except that the suite hadn’t been delivered when we met and photographed Pip, so we had to make sure the colour scheme matched the room and would eventually match the new furniture. And this is the result!!

The next step

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The past has been a focus on making sure that the painting has matched the room or decor as well as making the image contain the character of the owners dogs. But this year we went a step further to get the painting to match the character of the owner and these were two cases in point where the background was made to match the impression left by the owner ………..on me!

Nightsheet

When you do a show, you need something to exhibit but when you’ve gone, you need something to “protect” your exhibit. For years I would use ordinary sheets, either waterproof and/or just plain and they would hide my work from the world until I turned up the next day. But this year I thought I needed something a little spectacular to show what I do even when I am not there. So this is now my “nightsheet” for Crufts 2017, etc thank you to New Forest Signs and particularly Trev!

The Dogs

 

 

Some of the canine painting challenges have included the championship dogs who had to be “just so” but in some cases had recently passed away, to the life-size depiction of some of the biggest dogs in the world and the finding of my biggest canvas, so big it had to be made of metal! Everyone a real privilege!

Landscapes

 

The last 9 months since Crufts 2016 have been a joyful journey of acrylic experimentation, from researching some real places like the Avon and Meadowlands of Salisbury and constructing a scene, to just using colour to lift one of my familiar places in the Rhinefield enclosure. I guess this was the year I immersed myself in painting and started to really understand how to meet the needs of the people I paint for.