Scott Wilson

Project Description

Scott C. Wilson, artist/ retired architect

Little Diamond Island, Portland, ME./ South Boston, MA.

After a 45 career as a practicing architect, I recently and rather abruptly announced that I had decided to try my hand as an artist- an oil painting artist.

At first, my aspirations were to have my work inspired and informed by the work of early 20th century impressionists- particularly Manet and Renoir.

Finding it to be an insurmountable challenge to shake a lifetime of meticulous architectural precision and attention to every detail- all in pursuit of my own impressionism-, I gradually slid from loose impressionism toward realism.

If I see or perceive the tiniest detail in my subject matter, it is difficult for me not to include it in the painting. If the proportion or the perspective is off, I’ll find it so unsettling that I’ll rework an entire work or a large portion of it to correct this personal annoyance.

I am still pushing my work to express a looser impressionistic expression- albeit to these small details that I cannot overlook.

At the same time, most of my subject choices involve texture. I’m drawn to surfaces that have the character of age or of stress. Whether found in nature or the work of mankind, I like rough fatigued surfaces- rust, decomposing timber, aged and wrinkled faces, snarled plants, the bark of a tree, jagged rocks. How light plays on these surfaces thrills me. And I like painting that you can physically feel- feel the thickness- feel the brush strokes.

Thus, I’ve presented myself with abundant challenges. As my work slowly evolves, I find myself striking a balance between precision, depicting abundant detail, and then allowing the brush some freedom to push thick paint around within those parameters- the thicker the paint texture the better.

And finally, I am drawn to water and the skies above it as they reflect and illuminate the texture, soften the rough surfaces, and add life to my work. These interests then draw me toward the urban working waterfront as some of my favorite painting subjects.