Bill Scott: A Recurrent Memory - Digital Catalog by Somerville Manning Gallery

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

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.