Exhibition continues till 6th January 2025
Christmas Art Exhibition
A few paintings from my Christmas Art Exhibition to be held in my studio at 17a Menzieshill Road in Dundee
Starting on Saturday 7th December and open every day till Sunday 15th December. Open daily from 11am to 5pm
Free wine sampling. Special Festive discount of £100 off all paintings.
Union Canal at Linlithgow
Many years ago when I lived in Livingston I took a walk up Union Canal at Linlithgow looking for good waterside views to paint. I came across a lovely bridge, cottages and the barge Victoria which took visitors up the canal to explore the landscape. I took plenty photos then back in the studio set about painting a series of views from both sides of the bridge. Although my photos were taken in summer I still enjoy creating a snow scene winter landscape painting with pure imagination. These oil paintings all being the same size will make brilliant wall art with impact if grouped together as a diptych or triptych.
Nethergate in Bloom the story behind the painting
I started my working life as an apprentice gardener with Dundee Parks Department in 1959.
I had 5 years of training with day release classes and worked in different parks, nurseries and greenhouses. This was a time when flower power was at its peak. It was very important to show flower beds full of colourful bedding plants for both a spring and summer display. These were lessons that have stayed with me all my life. Dundee Parks created large flower beds along Nethergate. I was in the team that looked after these flower beds. I passed them one sunny day with camera in hand and took a few photos. I new then that I just had to capture this display on canvas, so out came one large canvas 48 x 30 inches and my oil paints. The composition included Dundee folk and students enjoying the sun but I needed a central figure as a focal point so I went along to the City Square and waited with camera in hand till some bonny lass passed by that was perfect for my painting. Of course not to frighten the young lady I took several images of the streets and buildings, and she just happened to be in one of them. This is a very large oil painting and will create a fantastic impact placed centrally as wall art.
As time went on the council started to cut back on flowers and gardeners, so my painting captures a time past when Dundee had immense flower power, but now, sadly, all gone.
DUNDEE PARISH CHURCH St. Marys ART Exhibition
Dundee Parish Church (St Mary’s) are holding an art exhibition in October with paintings from local artists from Dundee City of Discovery.
Exhibition open daily from 10.30am to 4.30pm running from Thursday 17th to Saturday 19th October.
Evening Art Classes in Dundee
The winter session of art classes in Dundee will start on Monday 13th January 2025.
Classes are for both gifted amateur and beginner looking to get help and advice with artistic creativity as well as enjoying a social night out with like minded folk.
The winter session lasts for 12 weeks ending on 31st March 2025.
The fee is £90 payable on first evening.
Enroll now by emailing John at johnstoa@blueyonder.co.uk
I think summer has arrived
Sun came out and lasted three days, before the rain arrived to try and spoil the show, but I was quick with the camera so here are a few pictures of my garden in mid summer.
Figure Study Paintings Theme
Four figure studies from the same pose with my Scottish model with each one having a different figure and background painting style. They are all painted in acrylic on a box canvas size 24 x 18 inches and all priced at £800 each.
Large oil painting of Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh
One of my biggest paintings now on video.
Summer Art Exhibition
My five paintings will be hung in the Summer Exhibition with the Broughty Ferry Art Society which starts on 27th June and ends on 7th July. Open daily from 11am to 5pm.
Exhibition is in the Scout halls in David Street.
I will be showing Scottish landscape paintings, Isle of Skye paintings and flower paintings from my garden.
Has Summer Arrived
Summer should be here according to the calendar but why do I still need my coat on when out in the garden. Cold north winds have been here for a couple of weeks. Summer flowers are struggling, but my hanging baskets are no too bad.
Tulips are coming into flower
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.
Some previously completed paintings get brightened up
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.
