Louis Audie

South African based Artist Louis Audie believes that he has brought the African Sunlight into many homes, corporate offices and the boardrooms of many people with his landscapes and wildlife paintings, which are realistic but with a touch of impressionism.

Louis Audie was born in 1935 and has been painting for the past thirty years. He taught himself to paint using whatever materials he could lay his hands on and through constant effort and practice he has developed his own technique and is today known as an expert in fine art oil painting of landscapes and seascapes in the modern South Africa.

Near Graskop

His usual medium is oils, and more recently acrylics and mixed media. Among his many mentors are; W. H. Coetzer, Gerrie Snyman, and Thornley Stewart. Jointly they’ve had a powerful influence on Louis’ art life.

Being a strong believer, his secret to success has been to unlock the hidden treasures and atmosphere buried deep in the natural beauty that his Maker has chosen to reveal to him through his patient, dedicated and persistent efforts.

Sea Scape by Louis Audie

His special passion has always been to paint the abundant, vast and wide open spaces of the Karoo. The Escarpment with its mists, contrasts and dramatic scenery presents another challenge to his abilities.

Louis has been an inspiration to many others of South Africa’s renowned, successful fine artists. A number have absorbed much of his influence which is sometimes quite obvious in their work, but which has helped them to develop their own brand of expression.

Little Karoo Scene

After deciding that they could’nt handle the pressures of Johannesburg and Gauteng for another moment, Louis and his wife Sandra have recently relocated to the quiet, and charming village of Graskop to be near beautiful scenery that motivates him to express himself.

Louis continues to paint for exhibitions all over South Africa.

Far North

He displayed his work as usual at the Art in the Park exhibition in Pietermaritzburg and is building up a portfolio for the Innibos Country Festival at Nelspruit this year.

In the meantime his other passion is to demonstrate his painting techniques to groups. Teaching art the easy way is his motto with DVD’s., with a wide distribution.

Far North Elephant

He presents a lifetime opportunity for the residents of Graskop and surrounding areas to take lessons from him or purchase one of the DVDs he has produced on his interpretation of how to mix and apply colours.

Visit the Knotty Nook Gallery of Fine Art in Sabie to view his work.

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For an exciting Art Gallery Tour of the Highlands, Escarpment, Lowveld regions and beyond call our Dream merchants at TRIPS ZA on
013 764 1177.

Email us at johnt@tripsza.com

James Stroud Artist

James Stroud
Sculptures in paint

There is nothing meek or ambiguous about a charging elephant especially when the tusker in question appears to be lunging off a canvas from South African painter James Stroud. His vivid wildlife portraits are so different from the flat surfaces of most sporting art they could be described as sculptures of paint. A topo map is almost required to navigate through his sense canyons of texture and rivers of color.

James' Work Bench

And it is no exaggeration to say that Stroud, who made a hugely successful debut in North America at Safari Club International’s 2007 convention, takes an elbow deep approach to laying down oil. Whether he is pushing paint thickly with a palette knife or using other tools including his hands to achieve distinctive visual effects such as portraying dust on a Cape Buffalo, the spots on a leopard’s coat or the flowing mane of a lion. Stroud has won praise from collectors for making his subjects actually look – and feel – true to life.

Giraffes in Reflection

“It excites me that someone is able to look at the animal image and be seduced by it, and then be able to look more closely at the paint itself and understand the actual physiology of the illusion,” Stroud says. Still, the dilemma for contemporary nature painters Stroud explains, lies with deciding how to celebrate the environment and iconic African species without falling into the trap of confirming old visual clichés . “I see my work as an attempt to both affirm the natural beauty of the visual world and at the same time to dissect the assumptions that we have about what great art is supposed to be.”

Elephants in Oils by Palette Knife

A South African native, he grew up on a timber plantation in eastern Mpumalanga on the wild edge of Kruger Park. On a primal level, he had a front row seat to predators and prey. Mpumalanga was a crossroads for international hunters and photographers. Sketching both people and animals, Stroud went to a rural school where Afrikaans was the first language and English the second

Warthogs in Oils by Palette Knife

However, the most important aspect of Stroud’s work is the uniqueness and originality of the style and medium. Often referred to as the LeRoy Neiman of wildlife art, he has taken his work further creating sculptural paintings in more true-to-life light and color.

James was born in 1970 in the Eastern Transvaal town of Graskop.  It was at a very young age that he became aware of his artistic talent, and thus chose art as a subject at school until matric (1987).

Still Life Oils and Brush

In 1990 he graduated from Natal University with a BA in Fine Art and History of Art as subjects.  He undertook various inspirational gallery tours to London and Edinburgh in 1991, to New York and Rome in 1993 and to Egypt in 1995.  Stroud started his profession doing mainly ceramics and in 1994 he started painting seriously.

A year later he was privileged to be selected by the Pretoria Art Museum to exhibit as an up and coming artists.  The biggest banking group in Africa, ABSA, acquired of his works for their collections.

Flowers in Oils by Palette Knife

James Stroud is an outdoor person and has developed an unique eye for nature and in parallel with this, he has a real quest to place his interpretation of what he sees on canvas.  His landscapes and animal studies with the distinctive broad Stroud strokes extrude the creative energy of his artistic passion.  Stroud is inspiring, his art is an experience.

Lioness in Oils by Palette Knife

Unfortunately, James Stroud’s work is  virtually unobtainable in South Africa today. He supplies and is represented by a number of prestigious galleries in the USA. he sells almost exclusively abroad.

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Join us for Art Gallery tours in the Highveld, Escarpment, Lowveld regions and beyond. Call our Dream Merchants at TRIPS ZA for more information on
013 764 1177

Email us at johnt@tripsza.com