Hello 

I'm back from home from Florida and would like to thank all of you that came to the Marco Island Arts Center last Sunday to take part in the Dillman's Festival of Artists. The painting I had demonstrated is pictured below. It is a painting of a photograph I took on my Greek Islands Workshop last year.

While I was in Florida last weekend I had the chance to talk to many artists who had asked me if I would be teaching in Florida anytime soon. I have talked with a few places while there in Marco Island and in Naples, and I am hoping it will lead to something happening next year. Keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned.

With all the talk about my teaching schedule while I was down in Florida, I decided I should inform my students about where and when I will be teaching this year, so this newsletter will cover my workshops and when they are scheduled.

I hope everyone that started sketching for my 22/66 Day Sketchbook Challenge is still going strong.
If you have anything to show or want to start the challenge, feel free to post what you are doing HERE, we all would love to see what you are sketching. 

David

Yes to Class at the Civic Center in Libertyville on February 2nd
Yes to Class  at The Studio in McHenry on February 4th

NEW Class starts February 6th at the Rivellino School of Art in Long Grove. If you are interested let the Rivellino School of Art or myself know you would like to attend.

Three years ago when I lost my full-time Illustration job, the only good thing that came from the layoff would be that I could now spend more time instructing. I actually wanted to become an instructor/teacher right out of art school but my mentor Irving Shapiro gave me the advice that I should go out and tackle an art career and while I was doing that I could be a substitute teacher for his classes when he was at workshops around the country. I did start teaching his classes when he was doing workshops in 1983 and I have been teaching and instructing ever since. I never taught full time because I had an illustration career that lasted 32 years but I had always kept a weekly class going since 1983. 

I had 2 mentors, one being Irving Shapiro and the other Robert Wade. Both instructors taught me so much about watercolor. Then Irving Shapiro became ill and he gave me his classes and recommended me to the people he did workshops with. Then the same thing happened when Robert Wade could no longer do workshops in the United States because of health insurance issues, Robert Wade recommended me to all his workshop contacts and that's when I started teaching workshops around the country. While teaching classes right out of art school I also realized I would have to prove myself to the students and that was when I wrote my first book, then the second book came 3 years later because I had plans on switching careers from full-time illustrator to full-time instructor.  I needed another book to help me get more teaching gigs and give me more credibility. All was going great and I picked up 4 big workshop venues along with 2 weekly classes and all was set for the switch from illustration to teaching. Then wouldn't you know it 9/11 happened and all my classes for that year were canceled along with my dream of teaching full time.

Now I am back and part of my new business is teaching full time and I have never been more determined to do what I love so much and that would be teaching students to create.

I have many students that have gone on to become professional artists and I am so happy for them..... it is the reason I teach. Watching students become master painters is just so rewarding and is totally why I do what I do.

Listed below is a 2017 schedule of my workshops and classes. I hope I get a chance to teach many of you this year and I hope I can make you achieve great painting skills along the way.

May: 1st through 4th I will be teaching an in-studio workshop in watercolor at the Landgrove Inn in Vermont.
This will be a new workshop for me that I am totally psyched about. This place has a beautiful building to work in and I hear the food every day is amazing. They have posted that it is a Plein-air workshop which isn't correct. I work with students in-studio for maximum learning. We may go out and sketch after class sometimes but that is just something that I do with students after or before classes.
 GO HERE FOR INFO

June: 11th through 16th I will be teaching an in-studio workshop for Dillman's in Wisconsin.
This is one of my favorite places to do a workshop. Everything about Dillman's is great and it is where I have learned to teach workshops and have come up with many of the ways I teach. The line Float-Your-Pigment came from this workshop venue and is a phrase I use all the time now in my teaching process. I love teaching here so much that I am teaching here twice this year, once in the spring and again in the Fall.

Like I said above, I love teaching here and the leaves in the fall are to die for here at Dillman's.

September-October: 27th through 5th I will be teaching on a river cruise ship on the Danube, from Vienna to Munich. This will be a very small number of students and a very one-on-one teaching experience for those that come with me on this workshop. I don't do much Plein-air painting on these overseas workshops but instead, help you to do more sketching on the spot and then painting more when we are back on the ship.
I feel most students like to take the tours that the ship provides and then we the students can sketch and take photos while on those tours. We can also go ashore together after and before tours and explore, sketch and take photos that we then can use later for painting while traveling to the next port. On this workshop, I also supply all the materials which I ship to you before the trip.

October: 9th through 13th I will be teaching an in-studio workshop for Cheap-Joes in Boone, NC.
This workshop has been planned 3 years ago and I totally can't wait for this workshop. I hear from other instructors and students that this is the 5 star venue for workshops. I hope you all can join me here for this week long workshop. 
GO HERE FOR INFO

I also do weekly classes and for information to those classes please email me directly at david@davidrbecker.com and I can tell you all about them personally. Thanks

If you would like me to come to your area or art organization, email me and I will see if we can make it happen. david@davidrbecker.com