About Roger Dennis
My Experience
I have been painting and drawing all my life. I started selling and exhibiting after graduating from St Andrews University (M.A. Philosophy) in 1973. Staying on in Fife, I then produced designed and made textile tunics and jackets and a range of greetings cards and prints of local topography in ink line. While painting abstracts. I also was employed by Perth High Street Archaeological Dig as a Small Finds Illustrator and Site Reconstructions Artist. After moving to Somerset and producing another range of topographical cards, I studied at
Dartington College of Arts "Art & Design In A Social Context," graduating with a Dip H.E. in 1982. In 1991 I started teaching Art in local Adult Education Centres, soon designing and delivering eight separate courses a week in venues across Dartmoor and South Devon.
2006 saw the beginning of my private classes in my studio in Chudleigh, and for a while now I have been running successful and vibrant classes completely freelance.
My Teaching Skills
I honed my skills in Adult Education in Community Centres and Colleges, eventually becoming a Moderator for SWAF Art Courses, including one in HMG Channings Wood. My strongest skills include elevating the personal unique skills of each artist to enable them to achieve what they want in their own iunique individual style; creating a friendly secure atmosphere for both intense creativity and relaxed social interaction; and imparting techniques, especially all the ins-and-outs of colour-mixing, pigment qualities, and identifying perceived colours of the subject. I have an extensive knowledge of art history, especially of late Nineteenth and first half of the Twentieth Century in Uk and France, and I encourage practical application of interpretations and inspiration gained from a wide range of artists.
My Art Skills
I am an experienced and proficient artist-painter with an eclectic portfolio. I particularly enjoying drawing, from precise topographical line illustration to expressive mark making in charcoal. I am equally at home in all the main techniques of oil, acrylic, pastel and water-based media, and I like to explore methods and approaches all the time. Likewise I ring the changes regularly on subject-matter, although often working in themes and on varied interpretations of the same motif, representational, abstract, expressive, etc. I have exhibited regularly since 1976 in galleries and Open Studios. My paintings hang in many private collections in the UK, Spain, France, and Luxembourg.