Louis Dodd, British 1943-2006- A two-decker and a late 17th / early 18th century Admiralty yacht at sea;

Lot description

Louis Dodd, British 1943-2006- A two-decker and a late 17th / early 18th century Admiralty yacht at sea; oil on canvas, signed 'Louis Dodd' (lower right), 81 x 96 cm. ARR. Provenance: Private Collection, UK. Note: The present work is loosely based on a composition by Charles Brooking (1723-1759) entitled 'Ships in a light breeze' - see National Maritime Museum BHC1022. Born in Hastings, Dodd attended the Hastings School of Art and the Goldsmith School of Art. He was a highly skilled draughtsman and developed his own refined method of painting, based on the techniques of the great Old Master maritime painters. Weeks or months of careful research and countless sketches preceded each painting. Working in oils on carefully prepared gessoed panels of mahogany, and later of marine ply, he began with a base painting of the sky, sea and background. Over that, using a very fine brush, he painted the detailed outlines of shipping and background buildings. Then he applied many layers of transparent glazes, allowing ample drying time between them, and this created a brilliance of colour, and illusion of light to the finished work. The end results are invariably reminiscent of the great masters of marine art. Connoisseur Magazine wrote 'Every decade a few artists emerge to a position of greatness and prestige to make their mark indelibly and powerfully on the art of their time, and Louis Dodd is just such an artist. He is possibly the most historically gifted artist to come into the marine field in the last 100 years'. He has the distinction of winning the Schaefer Award, the highest given in the field of marine art, three times, and is the first contemporary artist to be listed in the 'Dictionary of Maritime Painters'.