Glen Scouller
Born in Glasgow, Scouller was influenced as a student at the Glasgow School of Art - like so many successful Scottish painters - by the teaching and example of Duncan Shanks, James Robertson and David Donaldson. He absorbed what he thought it was most important to learn. The young man had diligence as well as talent. He needed to know about paint - its character, texture, tonality and how to exploit its own mysterious life. Then as soon as he could, he evolved a personal style, that essential paraph that would distinguish his work more emphatically than any signature at the bottom of a frame. By the mid 80´s, with several awards stoking his confidence, you might have stood in front of any airy watercolour , a corner of a French village or palm strewn beach on the Midi and immediately said, "that is a Scouller" - and you would have been right.
He had learned, above all, to let in the light, to make his shadows deep and resonant and his colour rich and saturated, to demonstrate that a blazing sun obscures more than it reveals. It is as if his brush and palette reverberate on the same wavelength as sunshine itself. There are Colourist echoes in Scouller´s treatment of still life - rich, imaginative compositions, which combined audacity and contradiction. It is this fine tuned quality that has made his work popular in Glasgow, London, New York, Hong Kong, Barcelona and South Africa.
THE ARTIST:
“Cezanne once said that the most difficult thing to do was to be creative in front of nature. It took a major painter like Cezanne to be just that. The rest of us mere mortals can only strive to be thus.Painting ‘en plein air’ forme has always been a tremendously exciting challenge, none more so than in South Africa with it’s fascinating and varied landscape – a veritable painter’s paradise. The many nuances of colours, textures,light etc. all add to a truly intoxicating mixture for the artist’s palette.
I have always strived to work in front of nature as much as I can, to set myself challenges and attempt to say something fresh about my subject.
On this recent trip to the Southern and Western Cape, I have painted in some stunningly beautiful places including Churchaven with its impossibly turquoise blue lagoon, emerald green marshes and coastline dotted with tin roofed cottages. Then on to the jagged Chapman’s Peak overlooking the busy and thriving harbour at Hout Bay, to Arniston with its long golden beaches, colourful fishing boats and even more colourful fishermen and finally on to the Karoo with its semi-desert scrubland populated with Aloes larger than the tallest man and the many charming Victorian towns with Dutch inspired buildings. Such a variety of landscape and a visual feast for the eyes.
I only hope I have captured a little of the beauty of this great land.
All this in turn would not have been possible without the kindness and hospitality shown to me by David and Anne Tripp, Margaret and Brian Baird and Evon Smuts, and also to Mark Read for his kind invitation to paint in this remarkable country.”
Glen Scouller 2006
