Facilities

The Paint Basket Torbay has it’s own dedicated studio in Torbay very close to Long Bay College and is only 5 mins drive from Albany Mega Centre,

The studio comfortably seats 9 students and is fully multi-media enabled with a sound system, DVD facilities and Internet access. Tea / Coffee facilities are free to our students.

Parking is safe and secure and well lit at night.

Studio is wheelchair friendly, the bathroom facilities are however not.

My Teaching Style

Small classes are conducted in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. There are never more than 9 students in a class to ensure you get plenty of individual attention. Each student also progresses at their own speed so there is no need to rush, play catch-up or wait for the other artists.

We concentrate on the practical side of painting like techniques and methods to ensure you can not only paint the subject at hand, but also apply these techniques to other paintings in the future. In other words I teach you to be able to paint anything you want independently.

Available Class Times

How the classes work

You come for a 3 hour class every week except the third week of every month which I take off to paint myself / market my own paintings. A special class calendar is available which shows the off weeks and Workshops throughout the year.
Your first three paintings are set as they are designed to teach you the basic progressive techniques used in most paintings – the first is a landscape – cottage and mountains, the second  a  seascape – fishermen on rocks,  the third – Boats on the beach – after that you can paint whatever you like and I’ll show you the specific techniques required to paint your chosen subject.
You can start at any time and continue for as long as you like.

Costs

The cost of the classes are only $120 per month! Pensioners $100 per month

All the required art supplies can be bought at the studio so no need to rush around finding the supplies you need.

For new students we have a starter pack available which has all the paints, brushes, etc. you need to get you started at $60. The pack will last you many paintings and you just need to replace as you need. Once you have started you will find that painting is one of the cheapest and most rewarding hobbies you get.

You can view some of my paintings as well as some of my student’s paintings by clicking on the links on the left.

Even if you have never painted before, but always wished you could, give me a call, you will be glad you did : 09 473 3402

On 3 July 2010 Dennis held a Watercolour Workshop mainly for members of the Auckland Watercolour Society. The subject selected was a photograph of a local rural barn. Dennis had them brighten up the colours and also add a stream with submerged rocks instead of the paved (tar) road. Here are some of the results of the Workshop.

	The original barn
	Dennis answering a question.

Student’s Paintings Below is a random selection of my New Zealand student’s paintings done over the past year. In our studios you can stay on as long as you want to. Obviously, the longer you stay with us the better and more professional the results will be. Some of the paintings have been executed with the painting knife only while others also have texture paste to add interest and make it dimensional. All are in oils.

Lion by Roeleen	Ethnic Women by Roeleen
Sunflowers By Cuilan	Wolf in the Studio? Paige Williams
Lilies in Glass Bowl by Cuilan	Farm where Patricia grew up on
The Wood Carriers by Gill	Pensioner's Day? Patricia, Gill and Keith.
Peter’s third painting	Bowl of Flowers by Roeleen

Here is a quick 1 1/2 hr pastel sketch on Ingress paper just to get my hand back into pastels after  not doing any for quite a few years.  It is from a photograph taken many years ago in Mpumalanga, South Africa while on holiday

	Stage 1. Quick charcoal outline to start with
Stage 2. Notice that I have compressed it horizontally	Stage 3. Middle area started.
Stage 5. Focal area begun.	Final Painting

Yesterday  afternoon (Saturday 8th August 2009) was the official opening of our new Torbay Studio. The weather turned out very pleasant for a winter’s day and the turn-out was excellent.

The open time was from 2pm to 6pm and  we averaged 10 visitors per hour. There was a constant and spread out stream of visitors to the studio with a total of 32 visitors throughout the 3-hour period. There was great interest in the forthcoming classes and quite a few have expressed desire of becoming students. A few have  already put their names down for starting in the next couple of days.

Although yesterday was the official opening day, classes had already been started and a very successful workshop was held last Saturday where we had  8 participants – 4 of which were complete beginners. Everyone took home a finished painting of a Venetian Scene done completely with a painting knife only.

I have  included some photographs of the afternoon and also one of a very special visitor. She came alone without her partner and stayed for about 15 minutes to keep an eye on the proceedings. You will meet her at the end of this article. She and her partner are regular visitors to our place.

Thank you to all who were able to visit the Studio.

Enjoy the photographs!

Torbay Newsletter Advert. - August 2009	Studio ready for the visitors
Display of some of Dennis' paintings	Dennis in his Studio
Showing a portrait of himself by one of his ex students	Dennis showing demo video
Anna talking to visitor	An unusual but welcome Visitor