Brays Island, South Carolina
I spent last weekend, November 6 through 8, showing paintings at the Brays Island Showcase in Sheldon, South Carolina. Brays is a sporting community between Savannah and Charleston, and the people who walk through a show there do not need the qualities of a bird dog explained to them. They have one at home. Usually two.
Ripples in the Water | Sporting Painting of Boykin with Mallard, Oil on Linen
Owners and Their Dogs
Most of the weekend was conversation. I heard about a pair of Boykins who hunt duck and pheasant. A nine-year-old yellow Lab who still earns her place in the blind. A setter named Louie. People told me about their dogs before they told me about themselves, you couldn’t ask for a better introduction.
That is what I love about painting sporting dog portraits. Nobody commissions one because the dog is handsome, though they all are. They commission one because of a particular morning, a particular retrieve, a dog who is nine now and will not be nine forever. My job is to paint the dog so the morning comes with it.
One of those dogs is still looking for a wall. Ripples in the Water, my painting of a Boykin spaniel, is available.
The fish found their people too, the tailing redfish most of all. And people loved the Duke's Mayo painting. Chardin had his copper pots. We have Duke's.
Setter in Sunlight | English Setter on Point, Oil on Linen
Martin Dingman's Llewellin Setters
The moment I will keep from the weekend came late in the day. I met Martin Dingman and his trainer, Dustin, who introduced me to their Llewellin Setters. Martin and Dustin are rebuilding one of the oldest bloodlines in the bird dog world, a line that traces back to Edward Laverack and Richard Purcell Llewellin in the England of the mid-1800s. These are dogs bred on purpose, for a very long time, by people who cared.
Dustin lets me take a few minutes with the dogs and photograph them in the setting light. Evening sun on a setter's coat is about as close to a Rembrandt as the field will hand you: warm light, deep shadow, and all that feathering lit at the edges. I came home with photographs I will be painting from for a good while.
There was some providence in it. I had finished a painting called Setter in Sunlight shortly before the show, and here were the dogs themselves, standing in the very light I had been chasing in the studio.
I also came home wanting a setter of my own, though that is a conversation for another day. Who knows, maybe a new pup for Christmas?
Llewellin Setter in Tall Grass | Out in the Field
Good neighbors: Red Fox Fine Art and the road to SEWE
My booth sat right beside Red Fox Fine Art, and a show is only as good as its neighbors. We spent the quiet stretches talking about sporting art, who is collecting it and why, and about the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston. I will be exhibiting at SEWE this February 12 through 14, 2027, and it is good to know I will have friends in the room.
What Comes Next
The photographs from Brays are already up in the studio. Several conversations from the weekend are turning into commissions: dog portraits, wildlife paintings, and one idea larger than a canvas.
Bird season does not wait. If you have a dog you want painted in the field, now is the time to talk, while there is still a season left to photograph.
Next is the Thomasville Wildlife Arts Festival in Thomasville, Georgia, November 20 through 22. After that comes SEWE in Charleston in February. If you are at either, come find me.
I am reserving 2027 commissions now. A $500 deposit holds your place, and the details are on my commission page. You can also write to me at hampton@hamptonwatts.com.
— Hampton
Questions I Heard at My Booth
Do you paint commissioned portraits of hunting dogs? Yes. I paint sporting dog portraits in oil, including setters, Labs, Boykin spaniels, pointers, and retrievers. Whenever possible I photograph the dog myself, in the field, and paint from those sessions.
How does a commission begin? With a conversation about the dog and the place. From there we plan a photo session, ideally during the season, and I paint from it in the studio. A $500 deposit reserves a 2027 commission through my reservation page. Timelines typically range from 4-8 months.
Where are you based? My studio is in Savannah, Georgia. I work with collectors across the Lowcountry, from Savannah and Bluffton to Palmetto Bluff and Charleston, and I travel for photo sessions.
Where can I see the paintings in person? At the Thomasville Wildlife Arts Festival, November 20 through 22, at the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, February 12 through 14, 2027, at Plateau Fine Art in Cashiers, North Carolina, and at Southern Crafted in Savannah.
About the painter. Hampton Watts is an oil painter in Savannah, Georgia, working in the classical tradition on sporting dogs, Lowcountry wildlife, and portraits. His work has been featured in Garden & Gun and commissioned by Telfair Museums.
