Upcoming Courses

Introduction to Plein Air – Dave West

June 7 - June 9

| €360

Date: 7th June – 9th June 2023
Medium: Oil Paint & Drawing
Participants: Maximum 9
Course level: The course is suitable for all levels, plein air beginners particularly welcome

Dave West is a full time artist and art tutor originally from South Wales and now living in North County Dublin. He studied Illustration at the Carmarthenshire College of Art & Design and more recently gained a degree in Art History.

Dave’s practice comfortably crosses several art forms and he is equally at home working in pencil, charcoal, pastel and oil paint.

Dave is passionate about ‘plein air’ painting which involves working (in all weathers) directly from the subject. In 2017 he won the Gold Mayoral Award at the ‘Art in the Open’ international plein air painting festival.

He has had numerous solo exhibitions and exhibited widely in Group Shows including the Royal Hibernian Academy and Royal Ulster Academy, and in the UK with the Royal West of England Academy, Royal Society of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Marine Artists, The New English Art Club, The Royal Society of British Artists, and the UK Pastel Society, at which he won the 2013 Schminke Award.

Course Concept

The course will explore the landscape of the local area and how we can create quick and effective paintings.

Each day will follow a similar structure with a studio based session in the morning where Dave will cover the fundamentals of plein-air painting covering aspects of theory such as choosing a subject, composition, value structures in addition to more practical things like how to paint specific things like skies, trees, mixing colours and how to layer your painting to create quick and effective oil sketches.

Each afternoon we will then go outside where Dave will do quick demonstrations of various subjects allowing participants time to tackle the same subjects themselves. This course is suitable for anyone that paints regularly and is comfortable with the basics of oil painting but really wants to tackle the tricky practice of plain-air painting

* The course takes place in Artform modern light-filled seaside studio with 24hr access for each visiting artist, and runs from 11am to 5pm on the first day and from 10am to 4pm on the subsequent days. Cost does not include accommodation, on request Artform offers artist accommodation options. Details on art materials and safety will be provided after signing up to the course. Artform operates Health and Safety studio policy in keeping with updated national guidelines (for further information please see here https://www.artform.ie/covid-19/).