Oct 21, 2017
Scott continues the tradition of making pictures inspired by
landscapes. However, in his newest paintings, there is no horizon
or direct reference to landscapes. Using a modified acrylic paint
and process of application as well as a two dimensional support
frequently consisting of shaped canvases, he instead creates an
experience of the earth and specific location of a landscape. The
surfaces of these paintings are actually sculpted using many
different devices, basically anything other than a brush and
including, pouring the paint. The paint is thick and full of volume
from the inclusion of a variety of particulates – iron, marble
dust, mica – and full of life. The colors range from black to
vibrant, bold pigments with the use of fluorescence, pearlescent
finishes and interference paint, each providing spectral shifts, a
shimmer like the sun reflecting off sand and rocks, as well as
optical effects. These paintings look as though they have been
sculpted by the earth’s eruptions and tectonic shifts as well as
carved by the blowing wind and rushing water, giving them a
painterly and hand-crafted feels. They are tactile and the
non-square shapes make them seem less likely to have been painted
from a “window-view” of the world, but more like they were observed
from various shaped portals from outer space or through one’s
imagination.
In the artist’s words, the inspiration for these new paintings is the “visual distillations of observed geologic phenomena that occurs in the high elevations of the Mojave Desert in Joshua Tree California.” Other influences that come through in these paintings are his interests in cross cultural experiences and symbols, and a passion for the trippy, psychedelic side of life with vivid and phosphorescent and interference paints.