Bill Scott: A Recurrent Memory - Digital Catalog

Page 1

Bill Scott A Recurrent Memory September 15th – October 14th, 2023 Publication by: 101 Stone Block Row, Breck’s Mill, 2nd Floor, Greenville, DE 19807 (302) 652-0271 info@somervillemanning.com

“I never quite know how to respond when people ask what my paintings are supposed to be. ‘What’s the narrative?' they’ll ask. For me, the narrative in any painting is the challenge of imagining how it was painted. I focus on how transparencies are juxtaposed with shapes of opaque color together with linear forms. I work actively on only one canvas at a time, but it always helps to have several works in various stages of completion. I use a brush to draw with paint directly onto the canvas and have also drawn small sketches of the flowers and weeds in my tiny backyard. There is renewable inspiration in the shapes of the houses, trees, and sky visible from my studio window. In the studio I have plants, dead branches, and fake flowers—all these appear as the colors, shapes, and lines in my paintings. Rather than accurately depicting a specific place or object, my goal is to paint what I subconsciously yearn to see while creating the elusive psychological calm I want to be enveloped within. A landscape painter friend of mine once described how, after her husband unexpectedly died, she woke every morning feeling peaceful. Yet, a nanosecond later she’d remember he was gone and then she’d burst into tears. It was only after she died that I began to see the beautifully idyllic landscapes she painted at the end of her life as her own attempt to permanently capture the brief hopeful waking moment. Like many artists I know, contrary to how deeply sad she felt, her paintings exuded a buoyant pleasure. I hope I too can create a similar and equally believable moment of pleasure.”

Bill Scott began his career studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1974 to 1979 but considers longer periods of working informally with painters Jane Piper and Joan Mitchell as the pivotal influences of his practice.

Noted Exhibitions

Swarthmore College

Hollins University

State Museum of Pennsylvania

National Academy Museum

University of Delaware

Selected Public Collections

Cleveland Museum of Art

Delaware Art Museum

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art

Woodmere Art Museum.

24 x 24 inches

Flowers for Patrick, 2022 Oil on canvas Bas-relief I, 2021 Oil on canvas 29 x 27 inches

An Irretrievable Pleasure, 2021

Oil on canvas

32 x 46 inches

Bas-relief II, 2022

Oil on canvas

34 x 34 inches

A Recurrent Memory, 2022

Oil on linen on Alucobond panel, 36 x 42 inches

Winter Flowers, 2016

reworked in 2023

Oil on canvas

43 x 39 inches

Half a World Away, 2022

Oil on canvas

60 x 72 inches

Perennials III, 2017 Oil on canvas 16 x 12 inches

Running between Weeds, 2017

reworked in 2023

Oil on canvas

16 x 16 inches

Oil on canvas

11 x 14 inches

Oil on canvas

12 x 16 inches

A Flower for You II, 2023 The Third Week of Spring, 2022

Oil on canvas

9 x 12 inches

Oil on canvas

11 x 14 inches

Wallflower, 2023 A Flower for You I, 2022

Running between Weeds, 2017 reworked in 2023

Oil on canvas, 16 x 16 inches

A Bright Blue Sky, 2023 Oil on canvas 40 x 44 inches

A Hopeful Gesture, 2023 Oil on canvas 40 x 48 inches

Songbird, 2023 Oil on canvas 36 x 30 inches

The Expectation of Spring, 2023

Oil on canvas

40 x 50 inches

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or
any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 2023 Somerville Manning Gallery.
by

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.