Tulips would love to come into flower but weird weather does them no favours. It is one lovely spring day followed by two days of heavy rain and cold strong winds. It will soon be time to open up the garden for visitors to see the spring display at end of April, so hoping for a decent dry warm spell to bring out all those tulips still in bud.
Two paintings recently repainted to add warmth to the image
Drymen Green and Fuchsia Swingtime have been repainted to add more colour.
Port Elgol Cottage on Isle of Skye
Port Elgol Cottage on Loch Scavaig on Isle of Skye is a Scottish landscape painting in acrylic on canvas size 36 x 18 inches available at £900. I started painting this Isle of Skye view in 2009 after a visit to Elgol to capture Scottish landscapes to paint. However I am now adding colour to my paintings so this one has now been updated. See website landscape page at https://johnstoa.com/landscape-paintings-1
Port Elgol Cottage on Isle of Skye beside Loch Scavaig
Spring Flowers
Another two paintings completed a few years ago went back onto the easel to brighten them up. Both these spring flower paintings in acrylic are on box canvas size 30 x 20 inches and priced at £900 each.
Latest Allotment Painting
An Old Shed completed in March in acrylic on a large box canvas is now hanging in my studio. City Road Allotment Gardens have given me numerous interesting images of life in the garden. This painting is number 1900.
When is a painting finished
A painting gets signed when the artist completes his picture to the best of his knowledge and experience. However as time goes on we come across new ideas. As we come out of a miserable wet winter without any snow I feel I need colour to brighten up my studio, so paintings previously completed are getting a new lease of life with colour added.
Let me know if you think I have overdone it.
When is a painting finished
When is a painting finished is a question all artists are often asked. In my case I complete a painting to the best of my skills, then ask Anna my wife if I should sign it. As a non artist she looks at the image as a member of the public and often sees things to be corrected that have escaped the trained eye. After these alterations are complete I sign my painting. It is finished. However as time passes, fashions change and we gain new knowledge, we look back and before long see new ideas for our completed paintings. The buyers look for something that has impact for them. It is no longer enough to capture reality. We are creating art that catches the eye, so forget reality. In landscapes move things around, leave some things out and add things if they add to the picture. my 2024 New Years Resolution was to add colour to all new works, but also to previously completed works if it gives them more impact. I will show a few here so please feel free to let me know your thoughts.
Scottish Artist John Stoa from Dundee
Looking back over my time as an artist.
I have been interested in art since childhood, but after leaving school took a career in horticulture, which I found to be very creative, designing landscapes, woodlands, parks, playing fields and planting up shopping precincts, highways and in the autumn planting mass drifts of daffodils and tulips. This career took me all over UK lasting 30 years. While in Darlington I joined the local art society and started to paint in oils. I submitted a painting in their annual exhibition which sold and got my first red dot. This gave me the motivation to start painting seriously most evenings and weekends. Sales in local galleries went well, so I then started to produce limited edition prints and Christmas cards from my winter landscapes of snow scenes. My horticultural career and hobby as an artist kept me very busy, as I was traveling all over UK selling paintings and prints.
However in 1992 while I worked as deputy Manager of Landscape and Forestry in Livingston New Town, the Government decided to wind up the New Towns, so I got made redundant. No problem as i now became a full time artist. Living in Scotland there is no shortage of great landscapes to capture on canvas, and in winter when the snow arrived I had plenty snow scenes to add variety. Then my gardening skills gave me plenty of flowers to capture on canvas. In the early years I used oil paints, but later on turned to watercolours and finally into acrylics.
Today I mostly use acrylics as they are fast drying and very forgiving. When one young lady, my Scottish model figure study never quite worked out, she got buried under a carpet of snow as I created a woodland winter landscape on this canvas. Several paintings follow the same path if they just do not impress the viewer.
Many artists find their main topic and continue with variations of their subject, but I find beauty in so many different places that I am forever changing topics.
However as it happens I often end up with one topic and numerous variations of the same. My Cape Gooseberry paintings are now on number 15, and my Scottish model Emily gave me so many sexy poses that I had to do a watercolour project of six different poses to find the best one for a large oil painting called Temptation. Although my gardening skills keep me in a world of brilliant flower borders full of colour, and with my allotment garden we get plenty fresh fruit and vegetables and cut flowers and I get fresh air and plenty exercise. The allotment has also provided numerous ideas for interesting paintings with dilapidated sheds, crooked fences, wild flowers and heaps of interesting garden junk. My neighbor Arthur's plot was full of pots, boxes, pallets, posts, roof tiles and flowering weeds, sorry, poppies. It may have been an allotment garden disaster, but it was an artists dream so I have now completed about ten studies of Arthur's Plot.
As we head into 2024 I see a change in direction for my style as I loosen up and create paintings with impact rather than reality. I will add new images to my blog and I welcome views from others to guide me along this new path.
My Scottish Models
At this time of year I am usually looking for snow to arrive so I can paint a few winter landscape snow scenes. However no snow is coming any time soon, so while I wait thought I would look out a few of my Scottish ladies who have modeled for me in years gone by.
Framing a Box Canvas
Box canvas, often called stretched box canvas is very popular in the art world today, as they do not need to be framed, so the artist can save the cost of framing. most galleries and exhibitions allow them unframed. However sometimes the artist may feel his painting would be improved with a frame. Box canvas do not lend themselves to normal framing systems because of their depth, so frame makers have introduced a step frame which the canvas can be fastened to, then it is the step frame that gets framed.
Dundee gardens and Allotment Competition
Anna won gold for best front garden in Dundee and I got silver for second best allotment in Dundee.
Winter Exhibition at Roseangle Gallery in Dundee
Dundee Art Society and Broughty Ferry Art Society are getting together for their joint Winter Art Exhibition to be held in Roseangle Gallery.
It starts on Saturday 2nd December and runs daily till Saturday 9th December open each day from 11am to 5pm with a late night on Tuesday 5th December open till 9pm. Free parking in the new large car park. Visitors are welcome to pop in and see some fantastic paintings.
Art Discounts for the Festive Season
John is happy to offer a 20% discount on all paintings and prints purchased from now till end of December. The wide variety of landscape paintings, snow scene winter landscape paintings, romantic and figurative paintings can all be seen on his website pages.
Allotment paintings
I have had two interests to pursue since childhood. I have always been interested in growing plants as I needed to be outdoors in all seasons, but then in winter I still needed something to keep me active. So painting was my perfect winter hobby. I took a career in horticulture as my day job, then painting was my main interest in evenings.
My love of growing plants was so strong that even with a big garden, I still needed more land so getting an allotment was always essential. However while looking after my allotment growing vegetables, fruit and flowers, the artist eyes were always finding interesting places that would make the perfect allotment painting. It was the untidy corner full of pots, boxes, pallets, wheelbarrows, ramshackle sheds and broken fences. So it started with my neighbor, Arthur’s plot in summer, then lets try it as a winter landscape painting, and before long where ever I went there was a perfect image needing to be captured on canvas. I have now completed nearly 30 allotment paintings, most of which are now sold, but I still have a few in the artist studio. See below and more information on my website at https://johnstoa.com/landscape-paintings-1
6 Ways to Make the Most of Edible Landscaping
Megan Cooper shows us how to integrate edible plants into our garden.
By cultivating an edible landscape in your own yard, you can liven up your recipes with fresh, high-quality produce and beautify your property at the same time! Edible landscaping is an art form, and if you’d like to capture your garden in a painting, you can commission an artist like John Stoa. These tips will walk you through the process of planting an edible landscape, including choosing your crops, designing an outdoor dining space, inviting your loved ones over for meals, and even teaching other people about these practices.
Choose Tasty Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs
As you decide what to plant, try to focus on produce you like to eat, as well as what will brighten up your yard. Treehugger recommends planting asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, rose hips, common figs, chives, elderberries, and pansies.
Plan Your Garden Lay Out
The way you lay out your garden is just as important as what you decide to plant. Assess how much space you have, and then ensure that your plants will receive enough light. Keep in mind that building raised beds can maximize your space. Think about how you can rotate crops as seasons change as well.
Set Up an Outdoor Dining Space
As you lay out your edible landscape and designate where you’ll plant certain crops, figure out if you can leave room for a cozy outdoor dining space. By adding an outdoor dining table and chairs, you’ll be able to indulge in the fruits of your labor right where you grew it! Keep in mind that major upgrades to your yard could actually raise the value of your home.
Care for Your Garden
To properly care for your garden, you’ll need to check your plants daily for any signs of pests and address problems with insects or animals as quickly as possible. Gather and Grow also states that you’ll want to keep up with weeding, water your plants properly based on your local rainfall levels, fertilize your plants frequently, and harvest and prune your plants at the right time. For instance, you prune herbs after their first flowering to encourage more growth and harvest fruits and vegetables when they are ripe.
Share Education on Edible Landscaping
As you plant, cultivate, and harvest from your edible landscape, you’ll inevitably learn lots about gardening through trial and error! You can share tips and tricks with other people who are interested in edible landscaping by starting a YouTube channel. This is a great way to demonstrate the ins and outs of growing an edible landscape.
Host Meals With Friends and Family
When you’ve harvested from your landscape, and your kitchen is overflowing with fresh produce, why not invite your loved ones over to enjoy it together? You can show off your beautiful landscape, too!
Edible landscaping can be a fulfilling hobby. You’ll get in touch with the natural world and master valuable new skills. By following these tips, you’ll be ready to plant your garden, incorporate an outdoor dining space, host your loved ones for dinner, and share your knowledge with others.
Want to commission original art for your edible landscape? Turn to John Stoa! Fill out the contact form on our website today to learn more about ordering a commission.
An Artist's Life
The Autumn Exhibition at Roseangle Gallery ran for a week showing 124 paintings, but we only sold 4. Not a great result, but then we were hit by storm force winds and very heavy rainfall with so much flooding and weather alerts for folk to stay at home, so no wonder footfall was very low.
However we keep going. My next exhibition hope was the Meffan Winter Exhibition in Forfar. I submitted two of my best paintings, Lady with a Diamond Earring and the Whisky Tasting with a fee costing £20, but they both got rejected, and no reason given.
Evening Art Classes in Dundee Autumn Session
Dundee artist John Stoa is now looking for anyone with an interest in art to come along and join his Monday evening art class. It is held in his studio at 17a Menzieshill Road starting at 7pm and ends at 9pm, with a break at 8pm for tea, coffee a biscuit and wander around the studio to chat with fellow artists and see a huge variety of paintings.
For more information check out the art classes page.
Falls of Dochart near Killin
Artists have a need to travel to seek out the best images for a good landscape painting.
In Scotland we are blessed with plenty small towns and villages full of character, rivers, lochs, the highlands, beaches along the coastline and castles everywhere. It was on such an exploration looking for the next view that I came across the Falls of Dochart at Killin. It is very well known with the best view looking upstream from the bridge. However we artists are always looking for something different so I wondered if I could get a better view down at the waters edge rather than the obvious safe one from the top of the bridge. I wanted to get close to the river as it thundered under the bridge, so I had to travel a bit up the road to gain access to the river bank, then carefully make my way down towards the bridge without falling into the water. As I got nearer the water soaked rocks got a bit slippy, but I was a bit younger in them days and had little fear. However visitors to the area got quite alarmed at this young fella scrambling over the rocks at the waters edge as it was running at full spate. Once I reached my best position I had to crouch low to get the full effect of the turbulence of the raging river. The things we artists do to get the best view!!! However after taking a few photos I managed to clamber back over the rocks to safety. Back home I had some cracking images for a great oil painting of the Falls of Dochart. We artists are always a bit critical of our own efforts and never know when to stop as the painting is finished. When down under the bridge looking up stream I noticed a young pine tree growing on top of a large rock in the middle of the river. My painting did not show this wee pine tree to good effect, so I decided to make another painting but this time in acrylics, but to show my wee pine tree as a focal point. It meant a total change of appearance for this location, but then its what we do to create variety.
The Story Behind the Painting
Arthurs Plot
Life has been very kind to me. I arrived at a very early age with an interest in drawing and painting, encouraged by my father who trained in art in Poland. Then my grannie took me in hand to show me how to grow good roses. I was hooked and eventually took a career in horticulture with art as my hobby. Things went well till redundancy loomed as the Government decided to wind up all the New Towns. I worked in Landscape and Forestry in Livingston new town, so took redundancy in 1992 and changed career to a full time artist, and horticulture became the hobby, but then I discovered saskatoons on a holiday in Canada. I got hooked on this new fruit which was unheard of in UK. Got myself some seeds and tried them out. Starting with about 10 seedlings of Smoky and Thiessen I needed an allotment to grow them so ended up at City Road allotments. Saskatoons took off and as I collected my own seeds for propagation before long I was growing them by the hundreds and selling all over the UK. However the artist in me continually saw potential paintings amongst all the dilapidated sheds, falling down fences, pallets, wheelbarrows, tubs, pots and a massive variety of plants. Arthur, my neighbour had a fantastic collection of garden debris, but the gardeners nightmare plot was the artists dream. Asked Arthur if he minded me taking a few photos. He said to hang on a bit till he tidied it up. I thought, no, I just loved it as it were in the run down dilapidated unkept condition. My first painting of Arthurs Plot in Summer was the start, but then in autumn and winter I got more ideas for further wee masterpieces. The artist brain keeps asking the question, what if this or that were to change we could come up with a massive variety of different images. Today reality in art takes a back-seat to allow our creativity to take us into unknown areas, and colour and composition become more important if they make a better image. So I just could not resist adding red flowers to the potatoes. I must now have painted a dozen images of Arthurs Plot.
Another Mild Winter
Snow never arrived in Dundee this mild dry winter so thought I would post a few of my winter landscape snow scenes just in case we forget what snow looks like.
