Sip ‘n’ Stroke – Paint a Sunflower with Dimitri
The River City Steampunk Expo’s “Steampunks In The Shadows” is delighted to have celebrated fan artist Dimitri Walker teaching a “Sip and Stroke” class where you can sip wine and get painting lessons from a master.First session is Saturday, June 1st at 12pm followed by a second class at 1pm. The cost is $20. Canvases paints and brushes and wine will be provided. Payment will be accepted by the artist upon arrival to the class.
At the heart of it Dimitri is and always has been a simple artist. Brush, paint, and canvas are his tools. He’s been a portrait artist since 1983, primarily using graphite (pencil). In 1994 he started to paint with oils and acrylics. While teaching a drawing class at a local art gallery and after a few weeks a student/friend who took his class to learn to draw the T.A.R.D.I.S. better asked “Dimitri I know you watch and love all the same shows and movies I do. Supernatural, Firefly, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, and all the comic book movies. I have been to your website. Why haven’t you done any Fan Art? And he said “What’s Fan Art?” After she explained he showed further ignorance by saying “Wow! People earn a living doing that at just that one comic book convention huh? (he thought DragonCon was the only comic book convention on the planet)” At which time she explained that there were dozens and dozens of conventions every weekend all over the world and not just DragonCon. After a few years doing conventions he started to add pieces that were solely his own creation and found that people who come to conventions to buy art love all kinds of art. 11 years, a few hundred comic conventions, and over 1000 Dimitri idea and fandom based original canvas paintings and drawings since that conversation with his student and he still thank her every chance he gets for setting him on this path. Thank You Meg Earhart.