Dodd, Louis (British) (1943-2006)

Born in 1943, in Hastings, England, Louis Dodd attended the Hastings School of Art and the Goldsmith School of Art, majoring in illustration. Connoisseur Magazine states, “Dodd is a painter of 17th and 18th century marine art, both ship portraiture and port cities. His ability is unsurpassed. This is coupled with an intimate knowledge of ports and famous structures. He is possibly the most historically gifted artist to come into the marine field in the last 100 years.”

Dodd paints mainly on mahogany panels or on fine laminated hardwood panels with one side finished in mahogany, a traditional support for paintings for many centuries. He first applies a chalk ground, which is left to dry and harden, then scraped down and smoothed. He uses a white lead base to fill in any blemishes, since a scratch could appear as rigging if left untreated.

The wide background areas are where he begins his paintings, and then the more detailed work until all the main elements have been added. He then applies glaze using transparent colors sympathetic to the base painting. The fine detail work such as the ships’ rigging comes next, and the painting is completed with varnish.

The paintings of Louis Dodd are exhibited in some of the world’s finest collections of marine art and in a select group of galleries across North America. He has the distinction of winning the Schaefer Award, the highest given in the field of marine art, three times.

COMET 1851 – AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIP