Stephen Scott
SUNBURY STREAM (2011) |
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STUDY FOR DOG SLEEPING
DOG SLEEPING (2011)
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MIRAMICHI BAY (2011) |
SPRING FIELD MOTIF IN OCHRE AND BROWN (2011) |
THE BRANCH (2011) |
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COMPANY TOWN: LANDSCAPE IN BLACK AND GREY (2011)
SPRING LANDSCAPE IN OCHRE AND BROWN(2011)
STUDY FOR SKYLINE AND RIVER (2011)
GREY MORNING, EARLY SPRING (2011) |
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SKATERS (2011) |
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ARTIST STATEMENT: I am known as a painter of landscape and figures. My work has developed out of regional sensibility and experience and has been informed by a current of realist tradition which is manifest in this region. However, travel has been a main force in helping me obtain perspective in order to work beyond the prosaic. My postgraduate training in art therapy has caused me to be aware of the dynamic underpinnings in visual expression, and travel has helped me find contact with different qualities of material. I find that representation is an articulate vehicle for a wide variety of expressive concerns. However, my approach has been to minimize a formulaic use of “style” in favor of responsiveness, and in this way invest subjects with “felt” consideration. Formal aspects are determined by the nature of subject and content, and each work has to struggle for it’s own authenticity. I try to use painting in a manner which allows aesthetic discovery and reveals significance beyond the corresponding relationships of imagery. As arts’ interpretive role is in its function as a direct object of contemplation for the viewer, its significance and structures are provided through a selection of key personal and extra-personal points of reference. My goal is to work toward the ability to touch upon, and by the use of touch, somehow create the magic to communicate universal issues and the mystery of experience in an unselfconscious and forthright manner. Stephen Scott, 2011 |
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RAMS (2010)
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WOMAN AND DOG
JESTER STUDY "The study (above) was done in preparation for a painting of a man in the guise of a jester. I have done many works using this model and he has always evoked unusual and he has always evoked unusual symbolic associations. The drawing and the larger paintings were actually done three or so years apart but my interest in the theme was enough to bring me back to it."
LIFE DRAWING MODEL "These drawings were done at a time when I was experimenting with expressive impulse in figurative drawing. The technique involved
WOMAN IN SLIP
THE ARTIST'S FATHER |
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STUDY FOR NEW BRUNSWICK LANDSCAPE
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PONDS AND LILIES SKETCH
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TWILIGHT, FRENCH LAKE
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TIDAL ROCKS, TIN CAN BEACH
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THE SLIDE |
MULLACKSTRASSE
TUNNEL
Born in Saint John, his formative years spent in Fredericton, Stephen Scott began art studies at the Ontario College of Art for one year before returning to New Brunswick to complete his training at Mount Allison University. He graduated with a fine arts degree in 1978. Subsequently, he obtained a Master of Arts in Arts Therapy from Concordia University, Montréal, Québec in 1998. His early paintings in egg tempera asserted his exceptional proficiency as a painter and a sensibility that cast the New Brunswick landscape under a dark, brooding mantle. This haunting tension between natural and inhabited environment has continued in his work, albeit he now prefers the oil medium in painting. With equal skill and ease he has reflected a more luminous side to his vision in the transparent medium of watercolors. Likewise, figure drawings, (quick studies often scaled to life-size), demonstrated more than assurance between eye and hand, but also an ability to expose personality in the sitters' likeness. Such solid traditional artistic grounding and technical virtuosity is not practiced for its own sake, however. It simply provides Scott with a way and means of probing below the surfaces of his subjects opening perceptions that respond to emotional vulnerabilities and a dialogue of ideas on a symbolic, spiritual level. This interior resonance characterizes his major themes, including landscapes, still life, and figures. The figure within the landscape, for example, must be considered not simply as a visage, but in its harmonious relationship with the surroundings articulated in gesture, form, and colors. The subdued dark range of his preferred palette sustains a sense of mystery, even melancholy. It also suggests the subtle influences Stephen Scott has absorbed from the great masters, whose work he has studied during several scholarship sponsored study and work trips to Europe, notably Antwerp (Belgium), Gotland (Sweden) and Berlin (Germany). He maintains connections in Berlin, where he lived in 2004 and 2005. Scott paints full time and resides in a rural setting near Fredericton.
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