John Stoa

My interest in art was established in childhood, as I saw a need to colour in any black and white pictures in my childrens story books, then many years later the magic of selling original paintings started when I got my first red dot at Darlington Art Society Annual Exhibition in 1980. I am largely self taught but constantly experiments with colour and light, tone and composition. I paint subjects from town to country, floral to figurative, snow scenes, summer landscapes, boats, Scottish castles, still life and pets. Although I had had a long career in horticulture taking me all over the United Kingdom I became a full time artist in 1992, just as the Government began to wind up the Scottish New Towns (I was in Livingston) and redundancy loomed. I have been fairly prolific and now (up to 2020) painted over 1800 paintings. All my paintings are numbered and have dates and titles on the back of the frame as well as on the artwork. I have published several limited edition prints, and often put on an exhibition of recent paintings in my Original Art studio in Dundee.