Kalk Bay - Man in a white shirt

Kalk Bay - Man in white Shirt
Oil on Board
15 cm x 20 cm

Kalk Bay is a quint little harbor in False Bay, Cape Town. The harbor wall is a popular walk way for tourists and locals, this man is probably a local acting like a tourist.

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Chinese Umbrella Ladies

Chinese Umbrella Ladies

Oil on Masonite

While having breakfast at Groot Constantia wine farm (the first wine farm in South Africa!) we noticed that a group of Chinese ladies were staring at my daughter; I think they were fascinated by her blond hair and blue eyes.
Then they started taking pictures of her, at first they were trying to take the photos so that we'd not notice, but only a short while later they were blatantly turning our breakfast into a photo shoot.
As they wondered off the matriarch took out her umbrella and held it up to shade her daughter from the African sun - I took out my camera and snapped a few reference shots... We're even now

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Girl reading on the beach - oil painting by Stephen Scott

Girl Reading on the beach - Pletenberg bay
Oil on Board
20cm x 25cm

Pletenberg bay is a wonderful beach destination, during the holiday season thousands of people flock to the water's edge. We were there in March last year, during the off season.
On the beach only a handful of people swam, and relaxed on the sand. The day was hot and the sea refreshingly cold.

Later in the afternoon storm clouds built up sending a cool mist ahead of the rain. The beach was deserted by the time we'd packed up our bags and folded up our chairs and umbrellas.

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Westcoast silos - a revision

Oil on Board

20 cm x 15 cm

I've posted this painting before (here) but as it's been standing on my shelf I've had this feeling that I need to do something to fix it... and I did...

See if you can spot the difference.


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Floppy hat and sun dress

Oil on Board
15cm x 20cm

This is a frivolous painting, it borders on sentimental, but I love it! It was fun to paint, it's bright and it just.... well it's just fun.

There's no back story, I saw an image like this somewhere and used the idea; I almost feel like I've cheated beacause there was no back breaking effort to get the reference image...but I don't care.

Enjoy it!

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Coffee on a winter’s beach - Oil Painting

Oil on Board
21 cm x 25 cm

On the same day as the beach couple strolled out along the beach hand in hand this lady had made herself comfortable in her camping chair. The day was far from beach weather, but it was the best weather we’d had in a long time – after weeks of rain this day of partially cloudy with scattered sunshine was the best day of the month... and it was weekend!

The beach was busy; a motley crew of people were attracted to the sea for whatever flimsy reason (I can't remember why we were there) – one thing we had in common was that we all had our best winter woollies with us, either wearing it or tucked under our arms… and some of us had coffee, a whole thermos of it…

We fled the beach an hour later as thick, dark clouds headed towards us, we gave up the beach for our own coffee in front of the fire at home.

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Reclining Figure – Red hair and creamy skin

Reclining Figure
Oil on Board
21 cm x 25cm

We’ve had this model sitting for us before, but I have not published a painting of her yet (still need to do some touching up) - I did publish a pen sketch of her a couple of weeks back - see the sketch here.

She’s got longish, curly red hair, creamy white skin and she sits beautifully… and for some reason I am very pleased with the way her knees were captured. There’s more detail about the painting and a bigger image over at my figure study blog.

It's got a similar feel to the Girl on a Persian carpet from last year.



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Waiting on the station Mk II - Oil painting

Waiting on the station

Oil on Board
21 cm x 26 cm

I've posted this painting before, in it's unfinished state (here) - it sat on my desk for a long time, it needed something... and I was not sure what...

I finished it last week and posted it for sale a few hours ago.

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Seated Figure

Seated Figure - the painting continues....

The painting heads on towards completion, see the bigger image on my figure study blog.

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Seated Figure

New picture uploaded to my figure study blog.
Seated Figure
Oil on Board

A new model, and a new work - this painting is still incomplete; see the bigger version at my figure study blog.

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Seated Model - Charchoal on paper and Oil on canvas.

Two new picture uploaded to my figure study blog.
Seated Girl
Oil on Board / Charcaol on paper

I've been very busy working on a new project, it's an art project, but it's not art.... I'll explain in detail soon.

In the meantime, here are two paintings done during our weekly figure study session.

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Waiting at the station - oil painting by Stephen Scott

Publish Post

Waiting for the Train
Oil on Board
21cm x 25 cm

This is another composite picture... a week ago I did a quick sketch while waiting for the train at Claremont station. The sketch was of a man dressed in blue, sitting on a bench, in the background was the shadow of the overhead walkway.

It was a < 1 minute sketch, but I liked the composition so I did a warm-up painting using the sketch as a reference - a quick 10min painting which concentrated on tone and without pretending to be a real painting. I wished that I had had a camera with me...

Then I went to Karin Jurick's blog - the latest image was so similar that I just had to use it to fill the void left by not having a camera with me.

See paintings from the other artists for the challenge at DSDF.

White Cat - Oil painting on canvas board

White Cat
21cm x 25cm Oil on board

I've posted the progression of 'white cat' before (here) and in that post I said I had to stop because the paint was simply too wet... well after two weeks all I added were the highlights to the eyes... worth the wait.

Onion - Oil on canvas board

Onion
Oil on Canvas Board
21cm x 23cm

I can't write the word 'onion' without thinking of my father - when I was a kid there was a silly joke in a kids book; what is an Oz-oz the joke asks... the answer is of course an onion with all it's letters turned sideways - it's all in the font.

I did this little painting as an exercise in simplicity, I wanted efficiency in brush strokes, bold brushwork, perfect colours... I got sidetracked and stuck to my normal little 'licks' of the paint brush... and I liked it!

It's not what I set out to do, but I have to ask myself what I was thinking - the style I set out to mimick is not mine, and it's not in my personality. This last year I've spent trying new things and I've made a lot of mistakes and churned out a lot of crap that I'm not willing to show anyone, while I have works going back a couple of years that I'm very fond of.

It's time to go back to doing what I know.

White Cat - Oil painting

White Cat - painting in progress
Oil on Canvas board

I could not carry on with it, the paint was simply too wet to continue... there is probably about ten minutes work still to be done, but it has to wait a day or two.

I've spent a bit of time ruining a bunch of paintings, nothing seems to be working at the moment, so it's great to have this small win.

Girl Walking

Girl Walking
Oil on Masonite
150mm x 180mm
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As with many of my paintings, this painting was done in the studio from a photo taken on the streets of Cape Town.
This girl was walking at a brisk pace through the suburbs where I live. I captured this image as she walked past a neighbor's wall with the midday sun filtering through the tree branches.
Capturing the light flitering through those branches was interesting - it's amazing how easy it is to completely mess up something that looks so easy.

The Rocker

Oil on Stretched Canvas
610mm x 770mm
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You may recognize this rocker: Brain May (Queen).
My intention was to use the photo (a still from their 1986 concert) as a reference for a generic guitar hero, but then my wife convinced me to just paint it as it is... he would have been playing a Gibson 335 (Chuck Berry type guitar) if I had my way.
What I did want is that feeling of a god like guitarist in the spotlight caught midway through a spine chilling solo - I think I got it.

Did you know that Brain May and his dad made his first electric guitar out of the old coffee table (your useless fact for the day).

On a Bike

On a Bike
420mm x 320mm
Oil on Masonite
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The painting was done in the studio almost entirely from imagination.

The inspiration for this painting cam from seeing an old man on a bike smoking a cigarette, my imagination ran away with me and I started picturing an old man in a suit, early morning, riding through the mist with his bike rack laded… this painting was the result of that mental image.

There was a simplicity about the subject and it was pure enjoyment creating this work, I love the way it painted… I think that’s the definition of a great painter; someone who can create a fantastic painting every time; at the moment it’s a bit of hit and miss for me.

Winter Buffalo

Winter Buffalo

150mm x 180mm

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I snapped this group of buffalo while visiting in Pretoria last year (I forget the park’s name; maybe someone can remind me? It's en route to The Cradle of Man.)

As we were leaving in the late afternoon we stumbled upon this small herd of buffalo settling in for the night. The sun was low on the horizon so the grass was ablaze with golden light. The Highveld has a special light to it during the winter, its crisp… if light can be described that way.

This is a studio produce work - oil on Masonite and is part of my 'postcards' series. This is the first wild life painting in the series. I have a small stock pile of wild life photos from which I intend creating more a broader gallery of African animal paintings. Look forward to seeing cheetah, giraffe, wildebeest and other African wildlife in the near future.

The other 'postcards' currently on sale are street and urban scenes from in and around Cape Town

Matroosberg - the painting

This is the back side of the row of cottages out at the Matroosberg and is the painting based on the sketch from the previous post.

The late afternoon sun set behind blue gum trees and cottages, there was a distinct variation in tones - from the dark blue tones in the shadows to the glowing light generously sprayed over of the fynbos. As the light dipped towards the horizon colours emerged from the foliage that I'd not noticed before... it became an enchanted wonderland of shape and colour.

An icy wind blew up a few minutes after I finished the sketch, that night the wind howled and the temperature plummeted - November is normally blisteringly hot, but not on the night of this sketch.

Late Afternoon at Matroosberg

600mm x 340mm Oil on Masonite
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