I started painting seriously in about 1960, and since then it has always been some sort of pivot in my life.    It started with keen encouragement from my dad and mom, Leslie and Molly, as well as with shared interest with my brothers Bruce and Rob, and sister Jill.    My father, and my maternal gran Emily Horne were both artists of note in the Eastern Cape, and they started me on this exciting journey.

I studied law and practised as an attorney for a decade, before turning to professional art in 1984.    But all along the way I kept up my art interest, exhibiting where I could, creating  our Penny Lane Art Gallery, and always having my paints close at hand.    I tackled my love for painting with more than a casual amateur interest, so when the change-over came it was smoother than I had imagined it would be.

As my best friend, my wife Janny has for decades been a major pillar of strength behind our progress in a very diverse art world.    She can handle any art-related task, has supported me on every front , has always run our galleries, and helped to mould our Painting Holidays into one of the leading creative workshops in the Country. Our children, Lindy & Anthonie, Les, Mel and Jonno, always stimulating and supportive, have been caught-up with alacrity in our right-brain world, which will hopefully enrich the left-brain commerce degrees that they all have completed!

So together with family, friends and countless helpers, supporters, clients and colleagues in the art realm, we have travelled a long road, and will continue to do so with keen anticipation.    We are very privileged and blessed to have had this support and this chance in life, and in addition to have been in a position to have shared it in some way with many hundreds of creative folk.

I hope you enjoy the journey through my life at the easel.

Regards,

Dale Elliott.

NOTES ON USING THIS SECTION

Press the enter button below, and then select any of the images in the section menu to view them in more detail, together with a descriptive text.

The paintings that I have chosen in this section are some of the milestone works from the approximately ten thousand originals that I have done in my life, and they form part of private and corporate collections in Southern Africa and abroad. They are therefore not available for reproduction in any form, and are subject to my sole copyright.

I suggest that the viewer should proceed through the selection in this chapter in numerical sequence, as there is a semblance of a loose chronological order as one progresses.    There are also certain specific art-related digressions in the various texts accompanying the images, which could be of interest to viewers.    These portions of the text are highlighted accordingly, as you will see when you get there.    Alternatively, if you wish to go directly to any of the special-interest digressions listed below, just click on the red writing in the following inventory.

THE DIGRESSIONS

An inventory of the digressions is as follows...

Dale reflects.......

on his 3 basic painting approach questions,  in painting no. 3
on commissions,   in painting nos. 17 & 38
on working off photographs,   in painting no. 5
on handling the colour green,   in painting no. 13
on intimacy in art,   in painting no. 12
on repeating a painting,   in painting no. 40
on the win-win in subject-matter,   in painting no. 3
on 5 factors of distance-illusion,   in painting no. 2
on painting the sea,   in painting no. 31
on selling a sea-scene,   in painting no. 31
on digital cameras,   in painting no. 25
on reflections in water,   in painting no. 31
on inspiration,   in painting no. 26
on simplicity,   in painting no. 7
on field-photography,   in painting no. 15
on style,   in painting no. 29
on criticism,   in painting no. 33
on happy-accident technique,   in painting no. 32
on wildlife painting,   in painting no. 36
on re-painting a scene,   in painting no. 41
on the WSSA, in painting no. 11
on 'safe' painting, in painting no. 24