Dennis Paul Batt

Dennis was born on April 20, 1952 in Woonsocket, South Dakota. His family moved to Massachusetts during his youth.

A year of living in Istanbul, Turkey imbued him with a sense of universal harmony. There he started painting and developed an original style using complex geometric patterns to represent natural objects. Dennis worked primarily in gouache, but paints with acrylics on canvas for larger works. He also draws portraits in pencil.

In February of 1976 Dennis noticed a Lapidary Journal with a commesso (intarsia) on the cover. He immediately saw a style similar to his own and realized that stone was an ideal media for him. He then left Boston and moved to San Diego, California where coincidentally both his family and the Lapidary Journal were located.

For 18 years while working as a commercial artist Dennis collected articles on commessi. He even got to meet William Grundke in 1984 at the Pacifica Gem Show in Long Beach, California, where he saw his first commesso; Williams magnificent Silent Night. In 1994 at the local Vista Gem Show Dennis met Williams son, Conrad Grundke and saw his beautiful artwork. Conrad invited him to attend the Saddleback Community College Emeritus Lapidary class where he taugh...

He received his education at the Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston.

Dennis has participated in numerous art shows on both the East and West coasts. He also held two separate one-man shows at the prestigious Nasrudin Gallery in Boston, as well as a one-man show at San Diego's oldest art establishment, Orr's Gallery. His paintings have been sold to many national and international collectors; and now Dennis has added the Commesso di pietre dure e tenere to his repertoire.

With the assistance of hundreds of lapidaries and their families, Dennis created a comprehensive database of stone-to-stone artwork called "American Masters of Stone." The work was published on a CD and distributed to hundreds of Art Libraries throughout the continent. The purpose of this work is to introduce lapidary as a fine art. A few years later, with the help of Conrad Grundke, this project evolved into a new website featuring hundreds of artists and thousands of images, biographies, how-to articles, and commentary. The site is also called American Masters of Stone.In 2005 Dennis was inducted into the National Rockhound & Lapidary Hall of Fame in the Lapidary division.

Dennis is a Past-President of the San Diego Museum of Art Artists Gui...