Painting the American South. A place where land, memory, and tradition remain deeply intertwined.
Portraits, sporting work, and the ordinary objects of a Lowcountry life. Oil on linen, from my studio in Savannah.
Recent work
A look at three paintings, and the story of each brushstroke.
His wild mane of hair and beard felt immediately connected to the landscape around us, echoing the movement of oak branches and the density of surrounding foliage. There is often a temptation in portrait painting to refine or control these qualities, to tame what feels unruly. But more often than not, it is precisely those elements that give a painting its character. Rather than impose order, I leaned into it.
James in Beige
Oil, 16 × 12. Painted beneath the oaks in Forsyth Park, Savannah.
With this event focused on fly fishing and conservation, my mind drifted to the mountain streams of North Carolina where I hiked growing up. I remembered the clarity of the water, the shimmer beneath the surface, and the sudden flash of a rainbow trout breaking free. It is a moment that passes in a breath. Oil painting allows me to hold it still.
Chasing a Fly
Oil, 30 × 24. Painted live with Garden & Gun at SEWE, Charleston.
A painting is not really finished until it has met the wall it’s going to live on. So that night I carried both canvases over to their house, and we stood in the lamplight and held them up in the places they might go. A canvas can do fine under gallery light and go flat in a room with its own light and its own colors already in it. They chose Breaking the Plane.
Breaking the Plane
Oil, 24 × 36. A spottail easing up so the surface gives without quite breaking. Private collection, Palmetto Bluff.
Your portrait
Ten commissions a year, painted from life and from reference made together. Families, founders, and the people an institution wants on its wall in eighty years.
2026 Full
2027 Reserving now
Reservation $500, credited to the portrait
From $5,000
Three ways to collect
Your room
Designers, hospitality, and offices. Send me the wall, the dimensions and the install date, and I will come back with options and a cost.
Trade 15% with resale certificate
Lead time 6 to 12 weeks
In stock Ships in one week
Your painting
Originals from the studio, from small tondos to large sporting canvases.
Tondos from $500
Ships within a week
Where the work has been
SCAD
Presidential portrait, Paula Wallace
Palmetto Bluff
Flow Gallery, 2026
Garden & Gun
Live painting at SEWE
William Aiken House
Collection
Telfair Museums
Telfair Ball
Cashiers Designer Showhouse
2026
Historic Charleston Foundation
Exhibition
Hôtel Capelongue
Beaumier, Provence
Tell me about your project
Whether it is a portrait, a wall, or a whole property, the useful first message is a short one. I answer everything myself, usually within two days.
get in touch
hampton@hamptonwatts.com · (843) 412-5419