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Hampton Watts | Portrait & Wildlife Painter

@hamptonwatts

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Classical Oil Portraits & Wildlife Art
Commissions for Collections & Family Legacies • Selective Projects
2026 Booked • 2027 Limited Availability

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Pine trees and the south are synonymous.

Long grey-blue trunks and green needles hold their color through calm winters. I wanted the enduring heartbeat of those trees next to the enduring women who have held this place together, and I built this painting in that light. Her face went first, finished and alone on the bare ground, before the hat or the wrap or a single pine existed behind her.

Everything after that was deciding what she was standing in. Her gaze was the anchor amid all the swaying trees and reeds.

Among the Pines
Oil on linen, 30 x 24
SOLD | Private Collection

I take a small number of portrait commissions each year. If that is something you have been thinking about, write to me and I will send you the catalog and what the process looks like.

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#portraitpainting #oilpainting #southernheritageart #contemporaryrealism #figurativeart portraitcommission classicalrealism savannah alaprima oilportrait by @hamptonwatts

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3 days ago

These portraits of Sassy, Wild, & Speed now reside in the family’s home in downtown Savannah. Each commission I make is a collaboration—honoring presence, character, and story through Old Master technique.

Limited to 10 portrait commissions annually.
2026–2027 availability filling quickly.
Inquire via link in bio or DM

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#PortraitArt #ClassicalRealism #OilPortrait #CommissionedArt #CharlestonArtist LegacyPortrait FineArt BespokeArt by @hamptonwatts

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9 months ago

Oil paintings celebrating the wild landscapes and game of the American South. From upland birds to coastal marshes, each work honors the spirit of place and pursuit.

Original works available. Custom commissions welcomed.
Collectors may inquire about available pieces and commission opportunities via link in bio.

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#SportingArt #WildlifeArt #GameBirdArt #HuntingArt #ClassicalPainting WildlifePainting OilPainting CollectorArt SouthernArt by @hamptonwatts

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9 months ago

I’m a portrait painter at heart, so when I sat down to paint a flounder, I painted it the only way I know how. Giving this flounder all of the size and detail I would give a portrait brought this unique fish to life.

Available now. DM me or tap the link in bio for size and details

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#oilpainting #figurativepainting #portraitpainting #decor #lowcountryart by @hamptonwatts

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2 days ago

I loved painting this redfish in a way that one single canvas couldn't contain.

Inspired by the Tondo paintings I have been making recently, I noticed that there was a quality leaning towards modern portraiture in splitting the fish in two. The separate panels draw you in and invite a closer inspection. On the wall they are a stunning 40 x 60” when combined, or 40 x 30” individually. You can find them framed and ready to hang at two upcoming shows!

Thankfully both shows this month are close to home.

Bluffton Arts & Seafood Festival, October 17 and 18.
Isle of Hope Art & Music Festival, October 24.

Spottail on Powder Blue
Diptych, Oil on Linen, 40 x 30" per panel

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#redfish #spottail #reddrum #lowcountry #bluffton #blufftonartsandseafood #sportingart #oilpainting #savannahpainter #contemporaryrealism by @hamptonwatts

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5 days ago

Barn Burning | SOLD

This comes from one of my favorite scenes in Southern literature in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Three brothers unknowingly sleep in the firelight of a barn set ablaze. It is beautiful and absurd, and full of all the gritty humor I find dear in the South.

24 x 36 inches, oil on linen

Similar narrative figure work available online and @plateaufineart

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#oilpainting #southern #fineart #portraitpainting #artgallery by @hamptonwatts

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3 months ago

Meet Tally. She’s one year old, endlessly curious, and always carrying a mischievous grin. It was important to paint her soft pink nose that distinguishes her from her breed.

Her family wanted her painted the way they see her: surrounded by the deep green foliage that wraps their home. In her portrait she is either ready for a cuddle or an adventure, sometimes both.

Commissions like this are the ones i love because i get to tell a real story and capture a whole love of personality.

She approved of her likeness, we think.

Oil on linen, 16×20
Private commission

Commission inquiries open. by @hamptonwatts

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3 months ago

Eight feet of fish. Two canvases. One portrait.

This diptych started with a simple question: what would it look like to paint a trout the way the Old Masters painted a nobleman? I want these paintings full of presence, on a serious scale. The answer was this: head on one canvas, tail on the other, rendered close enough that you stop and look twice.
The trompe l’oeil treatment isn’t simply decoration to me, instead it is the same careful attention that goes into any portrait I paint. Whether the subject has two legs or a rainbow of scales.

Available. Commissions open.

Rainbow Trout, 48x36” each.

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#rainbowtrout #flyfishing #oilpainting #southernheritage #fishart by @hamptonwatts

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3 months ago

At the perfect moment you can see a retriever at home in their world, wrapped in the very waters they love to swim. Water churns behind her and laps in calm currents before her. The duck is held proudly in her mouth, and amid all of it she has these eyes that search and find her owner. With this painting I wanted to capture that moment of pure pride and joy that a retriever feels, that we all feel, with a job well done for those we love.

Oil on Linen, 24x36”
Available

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#oilpainting #wildlife #retriever #fineart #hunting by @hamptonwatts

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4 months ago

My favorite subjects walk into a painting like they were always meant to be there.

Growing up in the southeast, it is the women who have such an enduring spirit, hopeful strength. They have a quiet confidence, deeply connected to the land and at ease with life that surrounds them.

Washed in dusk’s fading light, this hunter and her horse face the fullness of the day.

Available
Oil on Linen, 40 x 30”
Commissions open by @hamptonwatts

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4 months ago

The hydrangeas are in bloom here in Savannah and nothing seems to signal the beginning of summer quite like them.

In this small study, I wanted this gardener surrounded by them. Wrapped in morning light, her hat pulled low, gaze lifted somewhere beyond the frame. She embodies multitudes, her garden, the season, the south.

I chased after stillness in this painting. A peaceful unhurried sense of being completely at home in the land.

Woman Amid Hydrangeas
16x20”
Sold

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#oilpainting #southernart #portrait #hydrangeas #gardening by @hamptonwatts

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4 months ago

Earlier this year I had the privilege of partnering with @gardenandgun and painting live at @sewe in Charleston, this is what came out of it.

Chasing a Fly was created in collaboration with friends at Garden & Gun for their fly fishing conservation discussions. I’m proud to say it’s now featured in their magazine and online. That partnership meant a great deal to me. Garden & Gun understands the culture I’m painting from, as we capture the traditions that define life in the South.

Every fly fisherman knows this moment. The trout breaks the surface, the fly is hovering right there, and for one suspended second the whole river holds its bated breath. That’s what I was after on the canvas. Yes I wanted to capture the fish, but the electricity of the take too.

24×30”
Oil on Linen
DM for Inquiries

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#gardenandgun #sewe #oilpainting #sportingart #flyfishing taken in Charleston, S.C. by @hamptonwatts

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4 months ago