25th October 2025
Stefan Smit x Chris Valentine – Daler-Rowney Canteen Mural
South African artist and muralist Stefan Smit, based in Cape Town, and artist and illustrator Chris Valentine, from Johannesburg, teamed up for the Artist Residency at the Daler-Rowney Headquarters at the end of July.
The task of the long-time friends and Daler-Rowney artists was to develop a design for the 2 walls in the canteen to transform the communal space into a warmer and relaxing space for the Daler-Rowney employees. From the design, employee voting and execution the two artists worked hard to fulfil their mission to leave a lasting mark at the Daler-Rowney headquarters.
The chosen design, voted by the Daler-Rowney employees, was a nature motive with Swallows in movement on the long wall, created with the Daler-Rowney System3 Collection in all viscosities combined with System3 Mediums, and for the short wall an homage to artist Beatrix Botter, best known for her children’s books such as Peter Rabbit, watching over the Swallows, executed in Georgian Water Mixable Oil.
“We loved the idea of paying homage to Beatrix Potter as both Chris and I grew up having her work read to us and thought it would be fitting to pair her with something natural and went straight to one of my favourite things to paint, birds. We chose the barn swallow for a few reasons. For one, it is a truly beautiful bird aesthetically but also has some of the most gorgeous acrobatics of any bird and has a particularly dear message being that swallows were often tattooed on sailors as a sign of luck to help them find their way home when out at sea. They're also seen as a symbol of luck and positive change and so with that in mind, we thought that their bright and positive message would be a great addition to this space.” Stefan Smit + Chris Valentine
The result is stunning, and we feel blessed to see the stunning artwork every day and to discover something new due to the various added details in both murals. We say thank you very much to both Stefan Smit and Chris Valentine, for joining us on this exciting journey and for creating this wonderful piece of art for us in the Daler-Rowney Artist Residency.










Interview with Stefan
How was your experience at Daler Rowney?
“My experience of Daler-Rowney so far has been really incredible. I've loved getting a chance to see the factory and see behind the scenes how everything is made, and also to meet all of the employees of Daler-Rowney. It's really been an incredible experience. For years. I've been getting the paints and the amazing supplies, but I've never seen anything beyond that. So, getting a peek behind the curtain has been absolutely incredible.”
What was the motive behind this piece?
“One of the reasons why Chris and I decided to paint the motive that we did was because there have been so many amazing artists over the years, sponsored by Daler-Rowney, such as Turner and apparently Beatrix Potter used Daler-Rowney products over the years as well, apparently the watercolours. And I remember reading her Peter Rabbit books as a kid and really enjoying those stories. So, because she used Daler-Rowney products, we wanted to do something that just paid homage to her and wanted to have something that was her kind of musing over the swallows that she's kind of looking at and thinking about her next book. That was kind of the idea behind it, at least. And we wanted to have the swallows, and it's all good.”
What products did you use in the canteen piece?
“Chris and I had an awesome opportunity to be able to go into the showroom and, like, winning a golden ticket and going into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. We were able to use any of the products and we said yes to all of them. So the Beatrix Potter that you see behind me was a whole bunch of different types of oil paints, mainly the water-soluble oils, and all of the swallows that you see are used with System3Ffluid Acrylics, System3 Heavy Body and System3 Soft Body. We used a whole bunch of different texture mediums, like crackling paste, just everything we could get our hands on it's been over and above a lovely process painting. This has been a lot of fun being able to try all of the different products out.”
Does it make a difference for you to play around with these different mediums?
“It's always a lot of fun to try different mediums. There are some mediums that I'm not crazy about or I mean, I love all mediums, but there are some that I enjoy more than others. My favourite medium is oil paint. But I always love being able to try out different things, and I paint a lot of murals as well, so it's just not feasible to use, oil paints on lots of very large-scale murals. So being able to try things like the fluid range for murals is such an amazing process to do. The Daler-Rowney inks as well were really incredible because they spread so nicely. So, yeah, it's a lot of fun to try out the different mediums, like one of my favourites. using the copper paint on some of the feathers for the birds. So when you're walking around and you see the pieces in person, they kind of like, really glisten and glow.”
What mediums did you use on the piece?
“I've got a chance to try so many different mediums. It was so much fun because I got like glass beads, crackling paste and, textural paste as well, and a whole bunch of other ones like metallic, which were so much fun to try out because it gives you all sorts of different textures and sort of colours and, effects at the end, which you wouldn't normally get from regular paint.”
What was your favourite medium product that you used?
“I think I enjoyed the metallic the most because I got all sorts of, different sort of colours that come as a result. And those specifically are really nice to see in person because photographs photograph so great. But seeing that in person as you walk around it, the light kind of shifts and changes. So that's quite a fun one to work with. I'd say that was my favourite.”
Tell us about the process for such large-scale murals?
“So as far as I know, a lot of mural artists have different techniques. But, one of the ways that we do it is to start with kind of doodle grids, which are like chicken scratch, you're just doing, you're just doing like random patterns on the wall, and then you kind of use those as your grid to kind of figure out where things need to go roughly, especially when you're doing like large scale six storey buildings. To be able to know your perspective is very important. Then once I get that done, I basically will start kind of drawing in everything. And then once we have the drawings, we can then start colour blocking and then kind of fine-tune the details to the point where we're happy with the final result. “
Interview with Chris
Can you introduce yourself?
“My name is Chris Valentine. An artist and illustrator from Johannesburg, South Africa. I work predominantly in oil paint. I've done everything over the last sort of 14 or 15 years. My own business from commercial illustration to street art. Fine art, yeah, all sorts of murals at the moment. For the last 2 or 3 years I've been working in alternative movie posters, which has been amazing.”
Where do you find your inspiration for what you're painting?
“It’s changed so much over the years. It used to be, I mean, a lot, a lot of music very much into 70s progressive rock and metal. And so that genre of, of music really inspired me in a big way. I think my earliest inspiration to get into art was in high school. I think listening to Iron Maiden bands like that and cover artwork for the bands I loved, I was like, I don't know what that is, but that looks cool. Like that job. If I can make album covers for bands, that would be great. I also play electric guitar, so that was a huge inspiration. Yeah, like music and art to boys gone hand in hand. So that's very inspiring. And then I think through the various types of music I've been into, it became maybe sort of more depressive imagery, like creepy scenes, old industrial buildings and, yeah, all sorts of things really. But nowadays it's been movies. So I've always been inspired by pop culture and by various types of movies, science fiction, action movies, all sorts.”
What makes a Chris Valentine a Chris Valentine piece?
“Well, I've always been of the opinion that a signature style comes from an amalgamation of other people's styles that you're inspired by. So I was always very careful to be inspired by a large variety of artists that I could pick and choose elements that I really liked from everybody else, and then put them all together into my own style. So I love doing scrape marks, interesting scratching marks, and using ink rollers and braids to get interesting textures and oil paint. I actually use almost like a palette scraper knife to scrape oil paint off the surface. And then you get this awesome, like choice of paint, but it looks broken up. I love incorporating drips into my painting as well. In terms of colour usage. I mean, it's also changed so much over the years is to be very messy and very loose. And the way I paint it and now some movie poster stuff, when you've got 5 to 10 portraits in a piece and need to be very accurate and lots of details, it's become a lot more intricate for me. So I'm now a lot more careful about how I paint. but in terms of colours, it's also really funny because I used to paint almost exclusively with Ivory Black, Titanium White, and buff titanium just to get a slight sepia black and white piece. I hated bright colours. I wasn't a fan at all. And now my work is the polar opposite. It's been around the fact you ask me about fluorescent paints and, rose madder and all sorts of bright, bright pigments. So, yeah, I suppose all of those together form some kind of style that I think is unique to me, but that's for other people to decide.”
What was the highlight of your time at Daler-Rowney?
“I think the highlight for me has been the people. Everyone in this company has just been so welcome and warm and kind to us, and just so excited to show us what they do here. And, yeah, after using Daler-Rowney products for probably 15 to 20 years now since I was in school, it's just mind blowing. I think I've been absolutely shocked first and foremost by the scale of this company and its heritage. I think I had an inkling of it, but to see it all in person and to see everything is stunning. I mean, Steve worked in the company for 44 years, company's heritage going back to 1783 I just can't really comprehend. It's incredible. So to get to see a full tour of the factory today and the warehouse and just the scale just in Bracknell alone, it's just been mind blowing. So I mean, all of our time skills have been so much fun getting to hang out with you guys and then. Yeah, getting to see the factory. We got to meet Steve. Like I said, he's been working here for 44 years, 43 years. And, he was just so keen to really show us all of these incredible things in his office and these old, ancient pigments that go back so far. I've always been fascinated by history so I'm not sure if it's stuff that appeals to everyone, but for me, it's just to get to see the heritage of a brand and it's it's like Sherlock Holmes or something. Just getting to see these artefacts from a company's history that goes back so far, and to get to see how all of these beautiful paints are made that we've been using for so many years. It's just been an incredible it's, all around. It's been the most wonderful time, great times working on these murals, getting to see everyone's feedback and what everyone thinks. And yeah, we are just very blessed and fortunate to get to leave our mark in such an incredible heritage of a heritage of this company, to be part of the family.”


