A beautiful girl 
Charcoal on Paper

This is another drawing of my favourite model at the moment (you would have seen her in my last post over the shoulder)

I'm very happy with this drawing, even though it was never fully completed - the incompleteness of the drawing adds a certain charm.

You can see the full drawing over at my figure study site: 500 Nudes.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Over the shoulder

Charcoal on paper

This is a soft charcoal of one of my favourite models - you can view the the full picture (nude) here: http://500nudes.blogspot.com/2012/09/over-shoulder.html

 How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

My grandparents

In February I posted one of three painting I did as a gift for my aunt, and promised to post the other two, well here they are:

My Grandparents

Oil on Canvas (approx 21x29) each

In this painting my grandfather was about 20 years younger than in the other painting, and they seemed to be having a good giggle about something. Some useless information: He built the stone archway that you see in the background.

She died a short while after this photo was taken.

The photo was taken using an old instamatic type camera in the 1980's, so needless to say the image quality has become horrendous... not to mention tiny- the size of the head is less than a centimeter high in the original photo!

(For those of you who don't know what an instamatic camera was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instamatic)

These paintings are not for sale, but if there are others on this site that you are interested in, visit this page: How to buy a painting

Co-Op website

Those that used to come to my blog regularly would have noticed that there is a massive lack of new content - new paintings and drawings have been scarce in the last year.

I've been very busy on all things that are not painting... I've completed a management course, been working on a degree, and doing some hardcore web development.

This is a site I built for my art group: The new artist co-op website: http://www.artistsco-op.co.za/

Take a look at the web site and let me know what you think.

Grandpa

My Grand Father
Oil on Canvas
29 cm x 21cm

My dear aunt's 60 birthday came along and I had no idea what to get her, I was thinking about doing a painting for her and some how ambitiously settled into painting portraits of her parents (my grandfather and grandmother.)

The worst thing about this project was how few photos we have of them, the best reference photos I had of my grandpa was one from around 2002 and the best of my grandmother dated back to the early 1980's (she died in 1984)

I did three paintings in total (I'll submit each in a separate posting) - two of grandpa (with 20 years between the reference photos) and one of my grand mother.

This painting in this posting was from a photo taken when he was in his 90's and still stubborn as a mule. It was also the best reference photo of the three.

This series of portraits was the most stressful paintings I have ever done. I was adamant not to fail - the likeness had to be perfect. Andrew, my Co-Op painting buddy often says portrait painters die early because of the stress; I now support that sentiment whole heartedly.

I realised as I was painting how much I missed him.

(The reference photo)

How to buy a painting: How to buy a painting

Another Charcoal for May

Charcoal on Paper

This is the second charcoal I'm posting this month.
I think there is something (hopefully at least one thing) in each drawing that I fall in love with, in this drawing it's the fabric wrapped around her hips - I love the folds in the fabric and the way the light captures the folds. (For the full picture you'll have to pop over to my figure's blog - HERE.)

At tea time someone said (about my drawing) - "She looks cross."
The model, overhearing the comment, looked at my drawing and said; "No I don't, I look pretty!"
Gog bless her.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

May's Charcoal

May's Charcoal
Seated Nude - Charcoal on Paper
(SOLD)

I have a massive feeling of accomplishment with this drawing.
Why? Because the model loved it to the point of wanting to buy it!

And I love the light on the hair falling down in front of her face.

you can see the full picture at my figures blog - HERE

February's Nude

February's Nude
Charcoal on paper

See the full picture at my figure study blog - here

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.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

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

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Another Seated Nude in Charcoal

Seated nude
Charcoal on Paper

We got together last night after a few weeks of being homeless (our studio is being renovated) - we annexed a friend's house and turned her upstairs area into a studio for the night before heading out to the pub.

All in all it was a very successful evening out.

See the full picture at my figure study blog - here

Stephen Scott - Seated Nude - Charcoal on paper

Seated Nude

Charcoal on Paper

See the full picture in my figure study blog - Here


How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Stephen Scott - Seated Nude - Charcoal on paper

Seated Nude
Charcoal on Paper

See the full picture in my figure study blog - Here


How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Girl on the train - Pen Sketch

Girl on the train
Pen sketch

This is a simple pen sketch done on the train coming home from work - it was late and she had all the attitude in the world.
She chewed on a piece of gum all the way home, every now and then she'd blow a gum bubble - she's good at it.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

The eclectic mind of my desk

Sometimes I think my desk has a mind of it's own, and it's a weird mind...

What a strange collection of items; paint brushes, pallet (front left), dect phone (in front of the jar on the pallet), a kiddies book, a box set of Paulo Coehlo's fantastic books (the Alchemist is my favorite), a dress maker's tape measure (for measuring canvas sizes), a collection of paintings... there's other junk there too if you care to look.

I've not been painting - my studio got burgled... the only item of real value stolen was my bike (my precious bike)... but they took their time to trash my studio, overturned my easel, trampled paint all over, emptied drawers out.... it's taken a bit of time to get the courage to come out here and spend time in the studio. I become so angry that painting is impossible.

....maybe tomorrow....

Seated nude; charcoal on paper by Stephen Scott

Seated nude
charcoal on paper by Stephen Scott

Another week in the fantastic house with it's studio on the third floor!

It was the first week of winter for us - the studio was cold and impossible to heat up, our model huddled as close as possible to the heater during breaks, but during the pose she sat beautifully - the sign of a good model.

It's fascinating how the best models are also the smartest - our new girl has an honors degree in fine art and is currently working at the University of Cape Town.

See the full picture at my figure's blog - seated-nude-charcoal-on-paper-by

Picture blurb... How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

Seated nude with a red cushion

Seated nude with a red cushion
Oil on Board
20cm x 25cm

This is the first painting from our new studio you can see the full story on my figure study blog.

How to buy this painting: How to buy a painting

The Old man and the Mosquito

D.H. Mosquito MkVI - 1945
Darryl Legg

(Featured artist)

Yesterday I met an old man on the train - during the conversation it turned out that he's birthday was coming up on Friday (today); I joked with him by asking if he was turning fifty... "No," he said, "I'm turning 90!"

He laughed showing a mouth that was devoid of teeth bar one or two.
He had remnants of a British accent so I asked if he was from the UK; turns out that he came to South Africa in 1947 after the war.
"Did you serve active duty?" I asked.
"I was in the Mosquito squadron," says he.

The Mosquito was a wooden frame fighter / bomber / reconnaissance plane and the man I met was a navigator.

In most dual seat planes the navigator sits behind the pilot, but in the Mosquito and the Vampire (both built by de Havilland) the Navigator and the Pilot sit (or used to sit) next to each other.

He told me a story of his friend that had received a DFC for successfully crashing his Mosquito...
In case of a water landing the pilots were trained to lift the nose of the plane, the theory was that as the tail touched the water the plane would belly-flop onto the water and float - not so for the Mosquito - being a wooden frame plane the tail simply broke off and then the Roles Royce engines pulled the wreckage under.
This young pilot's plan, if he got shot down over the water, was to dive straight into the water. He got his chance while flying in the Mediterranean and the experiment proved correct. The plane dived about 12 foot (3m) then then bobbed up to the surface intact and floated there. That daring move changed how Mosquito pilots executed emergancy landings in the water and earned him the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross).

There's an entire site dedicated to the plane: http://www.dhmosquito.com/

The painting above was done by Darryl Legg - you can see his art here: http://www.aviationartsa.com/

Darryl's paintings are beautifully executed - here's one of my favorite planes painted in the glorious colours of the South African Air force. Pop over to his site for more on SAAF war planes.

North American Harvard Mk 111 (SAAF)

Chaeli Champaign

Well the Chaeli campaign is over for this year - we've raised tens of thousands of rands (still counting) and we had a lot of fun!

We started in Hermanus (see the sun rising behind us!) and cycled through to Stellenbosch on Friday - the ride took nearly 8 hours; which is a very long time, but we were a social group riding with people who had never ridden long distance before. They did very well! (122km in total)

The ride was beautiful (as you can see in the pictures)

The Frenchman smiling at you in the center photo is Jeremie Dupont; he's setting out for Paris in October with girlfriend Charlene Dickson.

You can see all the details of where they are going here.

The chap behind him is Deon, my friend and colleague.

Deon and I will probably ride with Jeremie and Charlene for the first few hundred Km. I'm looking forward to it!

Saturday we rode from Stellenbosch to Cape Town in the rain! (70km)

Sunday was the big day - the Cape Argus - 109km in the wind! It was hell!

In total just on 300Km and nearly 16 hours on the saddle!

Remembering that 25% of all paintings sold this moth will go to the charity... so to buy a painting: How to buy a painting

Chaeli 2010 - Starting tomorrow

This is the 2009 team, tomorrow morning I'll be standing where they were last year and I'll be as nervous as they were... 300Km is a long, long way to ride.

The weather prediction is that it's going to be very warm to hot, and with the warm weather comes the wind - not pleasant riding conditions!

My daughter gave me a teddy bear this morning, evidently it wants to ride with me - so I've got to find some way of attaching it to the bike so that it can participate in the ride.

Hopefully I can get back to painting next week.