isendyouthis.com

artportfolio: Roger Dennis


Hound Tor Abstract

Hound Tor Abstract

Based on the northern approach to a popular Dartmoor feature. Outcome of a long series of site sketches and studio studies, some of which are available in this portfolio.

Oil on canvas
40.5cm x 71cm

Introduction

   Mainly abstract and landscape, I enjoy working in a wide range of media and approaches, typically starting with drawings or sketches in watercolour and mixed media, and moving through acrylic or over colour studies to larger oil canvases.

I am fascinated by making spaces with colour, and animating the movement and emotional content with brushwork and paint textures.

Still life is becoming more of a second interest, and figure compositions and face/portrait interpretations are subjects I return to regularly.

Statement

I am an artist-painter, and tutor of art courses and workshops, working in South Devon and Dartmoor.  I have lived in Ashburton for many years.

Landscape and landscape-based abstracts are my current main interest. Dartmoor and other local scenes that I know well feature as starting points. They are mainly oils or acrylics.  However, I also enjoy working in watercolour and mixed media in various combinations, all sorts of drawing, and a wide range of subjects. 

I am inspired by a host of painters, some contemporary, but most from the hundred years or so from about 1870 to 1970, that not only continue to excite but to point the way down so many avenues of exploration, particularly to do with perception and the way colour creates space.

I tutor several groups, including weekly workshops in my studio in Chudleigh. For more details, see the "Workshops, Tuition and Demonstrations" pages.

 

Biography

QUALIFICATIONS
1973MA (Hons), Joint, in Logic-and-Metaphysics with Moral Philosophy. St. Andrews University
1982Dip HE Art And Design in a Social Context. Dartington College of Arts.

SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINES

First Two Decades
1951  Born Bournemouth, early childhood Swanage, then the New Forest,  and later school in Devon. 
1962  The Royal Drawing Society Exhibition, Highly Commended 
1969  'A' level Art,  A grade.

The Nineteen Seventies
1969  St. Andrews University, Fife. Co-founded, edited, illustrated and contributed prose and verse to 3 editions of a Literary-Arts magazine called “Entry"
1973  Lived in Fife until 1979 practising a variety of craft and art activities, including textiles and topographical line drawings. Employed as a Small-Finds Draughtsman by Perth High Street Archaeological Dig and also as an Artist drawing reconstruction views of the medieval city.  
Exhibited paintings, abstract and figurative, in St. Andrews Festival and elsewhere. 
1979  Moved to Somerset,  produced another series of local line drawings as prints and greetings cards.

The Eighties
1980  Devon, Dartington College,  H.E. qualification in “Art and Design in a Social Context,” with a special interest in murals and public art.
1982  Continued painting practice
1985  Creative Writing Apprenticeship Bursary from the Arvon Foundation, and forays into Teaching English as a Foreign Language. 

The Nineties
1991  Adult Education Tutor in Brixham and Totnes, and other A.E. Centres, Community College Departments, and the W.E.A. Mainly teaching Watercolours, but also Oils, Art History, Drawing-and-Painting, and ‘A’ level English.  5 years as Art Course Moderator for Open College Network Southwest. 

The Twentyfirst Century
2007/8  Art Workshops in First Floor Studio, Clay Door, Old Pottery Court, Chudleigh, and other private tutoring to groups in Yealmpton, Dartington, and South Brent.  Courses of weekly tuition for small groups of practised and professional artists, current group includes Ceramicists, Photographers and Designers. See "The Roger Dennis Studio Painters"  who exhibited at  Harbour House Gallery, Kingsbridge, in 2011.