JULIAN M C SCOTT
Artist’s Statement:
My influences are wide and include modernist and contemporary experimental abstraction and the landscapes that I inhabit and through which I move. I owe a great deal to contemporary artists such as those termed Provisional by Rubinstein (2009) or Casual by Butler (2011) as well as others that revisit some of the questions left by painterly abstraction around issues of intuition, intention, meaning and gesture, as ‘unfinished business’. I embrace abstraction as a departure point and find inspiration in intuitive use of colour, mark-making, etc. attempting to guide it towards a discovered, hopefully ambiguous, spatiality.
My work develops through a process in which I respond to the materiality of the paint and to the thoughts and ideas that emerge through analogy and metaphor. I usually work on a number of paintings at once, often returning to them several times over weeks, months or years. I try to embrace and celebrate the awkward, the slightly “off” and to surprise myself with unexpected juxtapositions. Whilst this might be akin to a kind of automatism, it is also the result of considered, conscious decision making and an accommodation of these two, seemingly paradoxical, positions is crucial. This methodology is both cognitive and intuitive and, through it, painting becomes a process of research into the act of painting itself as well as an exploration, rather than a depiction, of actual and fictive experience. In the process of becoming, paintings can hint at a spatiality reminiscent of real, imagined, physical or mental landscapes and at those things that might be experienced within them.
Rubinstein, R. (2009) ‘Provisional Painting’ Art in America, accessed at 10.00am on 08.01.2025 at: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/provisional-painting-raphael-rubinstein-62792/
Butler, S.L. (2011) 'Abstract Painting: The New Casualists' Brooklyn Rail accessed at 10.02am on 08.01.2025 at: https://brooklynrail.org/2011/06/artseen/abstract-painting-the-new-casualists/
Biography:
I was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and grew up in Bristol. My father was the sculptor and artist Gerald Scott so I was surrounded by art and artists from the very beginning. My developing passions and interests, nourished by this creative environment, led me to attend art school, initially to study sculpture then for a Masters in painting. Alongside my continuing creative practice, I followed a career teaching at various art schools in the UK. Most recently I designed and lead the BA (Hons) Fine Art programme at Bristol School of Art and the new Integrated Foundation Programme in Art, Media and Design at Bristol UWE.
I left teaching in 2020 to concentrate more fully on my own painting, working from my studio on top of the house that I share with my wife and where we brought up our family.
Education:
Foundation Studies in Art and design: Bristol Polytechnic (Now Bristol UWE)
BA (Hons) Fine Art: Kingston School of Art
MA Fine Art: Cardiff School of Art & Design
Teaching experience :
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and have taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level in various Universities and Art Schools, including:
Harrow School of Art (now the University of Westminster) on the Foundation Course and BA(Hons) Illustration.
Bristol School of Art Course Leader: Foundation Art & Design (UAL); BA (Hons) Fine Art and FdA Creative Practices
Bristol UWE: Programme Leader: Integrated Foundation in Art, Media & Design; BA (Hons) Education in Professional Practice and Pathway Lead for the BEd (Hons) Fine Art Pathway
Consultancy etc.:
Former member of the Artists' Committee of the King’s Street Gallery, Bristol.
Founder member of ‘Artery’, an organisation set up to organise temporary and 'pop-up' exhibition venues in and around the City of Bristol.
Former Scheme Advisor and External Examiner: Foundation Studies in Art & Design for the Awarding Body Consortium where I examined at various institutions across the South and Southwest of England including City of Bath College and the University of Portsmouth..
Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions:
RWA Bristol
Embankment Gallery, London.
Syon Park Art Centre, London. Three person show with Pip Thompson and Ann-Marie Foster.
The Gallery, Acme Studios, Brixton. Solo Show.
National Museum of Wales. Cardiff.
Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery (Catalogue). Kanagawa, Japan.
The Festival Gallery, Bath. Two person show with Howard Hodgkin.
Brewhouse Gallery, Taunton
Kingswood Civic Centre, Bristol. Solo Show.
Bristol School of Art. Bristol
Talbot Fine Art, Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
Chapter Gallery, Cardiff: Sites and Sensibilities:.
Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff.
King Street Gallery Bristol.
The Old Leadworks pop-up Gallery space: A3-Artery Artists Artworx at the Leadworks, Bristol.
John Street Gallery, Stroud.
2021:
Espacio Gallery, Shoreditch. "Abstract" -
Victoria Gallery, Bath. Bath Society of Artists Annual Open exhibition
2022:
East Cliff House Gallery, Essex. "About the Size of It"
Centrespace Gallery, Bristol. "Imagined Things" – Two person show with ceramicist, Oliver Kent.
La Grange Gallery Cernay-Lès-Reims, France. "Like a Slight Hiccup..." /" Comme un léger contretemps…" (Catalogue).
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield “Paint"
2023:
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield "Beneath the Earth"
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield "Magic"
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield “Abstract”
ACEarts Gallery, Somerton “ACEarts Open”
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield “Fronteer open”
2024:
HOURS, Bristol. "In the Abstract", Solo show.
Bocabar Arts, "Springtide". Paintworks, Bristol. Group Show.
Terrace Gallery, London. "Concrete > Abstract". Group Show curated by Stephen Keane.
Terrace Gallery at Patchworks, London. "It Rose and it Fell" - 20 years of the Terrace Gallery. Group Show.
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield. "Abstract '24" Group Show.
No Format Gallery, Debtford, London. "Finding Form" Group show curated by Stephen Keane & Sara Breinlinger.
Upcoming Exhibitions:
The Ropewalk Artspace, Barton upon Humber "Abstract Encounters". Group Show curated by Anthony Housman and David Alcock from 13 Sep.-29th Nov. 2025
Julian is also a musician and a member of the band 'Venn'. See link on the 'Links' page.
Artist’s Statement:
My influences are wide and include modernist and contemporary experimental abstraction and the landscapes that I inhabit and through which I move. I owe a great deal to contemporary artists such as those termed Provisional by Rubinstein (2009) or Casual by Butler (2011) as well as others that revisit some of the questions left by painterly abstraction around issues of intuition, intention, meaning and gesture, as ‘unfinished business’. I embrace abstraction as a departure point and find inspiration in intuitive use of colour, mark-making, etc. attempting to guide it towards a discovered, hopefully ambiguous, spatiality.
My work develops through a process in which I respond to the materiality of the paint and to the thoughts and ideas that emerge through analogy and metaphor. I usually work on a number of paintings at once, often returning to them several times over weeks, months or years. I try to embrace and celebrate the awkward, the slightly “off” and to surprise myself with unexpected juxtapositions. Whilst this might be akin to a kind of automatism, it is also the result of considered, conscious decision making and an accommodation of these two, seemingly paradoxical, positions is crucial. This methodology is both cognitive and intuitive and, through it, painting becomes a process of research into the act of painting itself as well as an exploration, rather than a depiction, of actual and fictive experience. In the process of becoming, paintings can hint at a spatiality reminiscent of real, imagined, physical or mental landscapes and at those things that might be experienced within them.
Rubinstein, R. (2009) ‘Provisional Painting’ Art in America, accessed at 10.00am on 08.01.2025 at: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/provisional-painting-raphael-rubinstein-62792/
Butler, S.L. (2011) 'Abstract Painting: The New Casualists' Brooklyn Rail accessed at 10.02am on 08.01.2025 at: https://brooklynrail.org/2011/06/artseen/abstract-painting-the-new-casualists/
Biography:
I was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and grew up in Bristol. My father was the sculptor and artist Gerald Scott so I was surrounded by art and artists from the very beginning. My developing passions and interests, nourished by this creative environment, led me to attend art school, initially to study sculpture then for a Masters in painting. Alongside my continuing creative practice, I followed a career teaching at various art schools in the UK. Most recently I designed and lead the BA (Hons) Fine Art programme at Bristol School of Art and the new Integrated Foundation Programme in Art, Media and Design at Bristol UWE.
I left teaching in 2020 to concentrate more fully on my own painting, working from my studio on top of the house that I share with my wife and where we brought up our family.
Education:
Foundation Studies in Art and design: Bristol Polytechnic (Now Bristol UWE)
BA (Hons) Fine Art: Kingston School of Art
MA Fine Art: Cardiff School of Art & Design
Teaching experience :
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and have taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level in various Universities and Art Schools, including:
Harrow School of Art (now the University of Westminster) on the Foundation Course and BA(Hons) Illustration.
Bristol School of Art Course Leader: Foundation Art & Design (UAL); BA (Hons) Fine Art and FdA Creative Practices
Bristol UWE: Programme Leader: Integrated Foundation in Art, Media & Design; BA (Hons) Education in Professional Practice and Pathway Lead for the BEd (Hons) Fine Art Pathway
Consultancy etc.:
Former member of the Artists' Committee of the King’s Street Gallery, Bristol.
Founder member of ‘Artery’, an organisation set up to organise temporary and 'pop-up' exhibition venues in and around the City of Bristol.
Former Scheme Advisor and External Examiner: Foundation Studies in Art & Design for the Awarding Body Consortium where I examined at various institutions across the South and Southwest of England including City of Bath College and the University of Portsmouth..
Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions:
RWA Bristol
Embankment Gallery, London.
Syon Park Art Centre, London. Three person show with Pip Thompson and Ann-Marie Foster.
The Gallery, Acme Studios, Brixton. Solo Show.
National Museum of Wales. Cardiff.
Kanagawa Prefectural Gallery (Catalogue). Kanagawa, Japan.
The Festival Gallery, Bath. Two person show with Howard Hodgkin.
Brewhouse Gallery, Taunton
Kingswood Civic Centre, Bristol. Solo Show.
Bristol School of Art. Bristol
Talbot Fine Art, Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
Chapter Gallery, Cardiff: Sites and Sensibilities:.
Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff.
King Street Gallery Bristol.
The Old Leadworks pop-up Gallery space: A3-Artery Artists Artworx at the Leadworks, Bristol.
John Street Gallery, Stroud.
2021:
Espacio Gallery, Shoreditch. "Abstract" -
Victoria Gallery, Bath. Bath Society of Artists Annual Open exhibition
2022:
East Cliff House Gallery, Essex. "About the Size of It"
Centrespace Gallery, Bristol. "Imagined Things" – Two person show with ceramicist, Oliver Kent.
La Grange Gallery Cernay-Lès-Reims, France. "Like a Slight Hiccup..." /" Comme un léger contretemps…" (Catalogue).
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield “Paint"
2023:
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield "Beneath the Earth"
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield "Magic"
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield “Abstract”
ACEarts Gallery, Somerton “ACEarts Open”
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield “Fronteer open”
2024:
HOURS, Bristol. "In the Abstract", Solo show.
Bocabar Arts, "Springtide". Paintworks, Bristol. Group Show.
Terrace Gallery, London. "Concrete > Abstract". Group Show curated by Stephen Keane.
Terrace Gallery at Patchworks, London. "It Rose and it Fell" - 20 years of the Terrace Gallery. Group Show.
Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield. "Abstract '24" Group Show.
No Format Gallery, Debtford, London. "Finding Form" Group show curated by Stephen Keane & Sara Breinlinger.
Upcoming Exhibitions:
The Ropewalk Artspace, Barton upon Humber "Abstract Encounters". Group Show curated by Anthony Housman and David Alcock from 13 Sep.-29th Nov. 2025
Julian is also a musician and a member of the band 'Venn'. See link on the 'Links' page.