Scott Allen was born October 1953 in Wenatchee, Washington. His mother Frances was an artist and his father Kenneth a piano player. The family home was filled with art, books and music which helped form the foundation of Scott’s creative life. Outside, Scott was drawn to the beauty of his surroundings — the colors and textures of the orchards, hills and valleys, the dry open landscapes and the long vistas, all of which continue to find expression in Scott’s art.
Scott attended the local community college and found strong art teachers that gave him a grounding in composition, proportion, media, and value. Between gaps in school Scott pursued building design, woodworking and construction, which gave him an appreciation for craft and workmanship.
Choosing architecture as a career path, Scott attended the University of Washington and the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his first architectural project in New York City, Scott returned to Washington in 1984, settled on Bainbridge Island and practiced architecture in Seattle and Bainbridge Island until 2021.
Scott’s passion for artistic expression accelerated in the mid 1990’s, inspired by the enthusiasm his daughters Katie and Claire were showing for art. He first explored soft pastels as a medium and now works primarily with oil paint. His subject matter often evokes the eastern Washington landscapes he remembers from his youth. In addition, he creates work that embodies the much different landscapes of the Salish Sea area, and has recently been creating art that explores more abstract ideas about space, object, light and color.
Scott’s work has been the subject of several group and solo exhibitions. He is widely collected, and his work has been exhibited at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art as part of the Cynthia Sears collection. He continues to work from his studio on Bainbridge Island.
Artist Statement
I took a creative writing class once and the instructor told us to write from our own experience. I ignored that advice then, but remembered it years later when I began to create art, starting with images from where I grew up that still exist in my mind. As a kid, my family loved to drive out into the country, and I sat in the back seat staring out at the rolling hills and old barns as they passed by. I sensed both clarity and mystery in those landscapes, with their colors ranging from muted to intense and the way that light played on them, and I continue to explore these ideas in my work.
The area I grew up in is for the most part open country, and the marks that people make on the land are especially obvious. The roads, fields, and other elements imposed on the landscape inevitably create a visual tension and counterpoint to the natural order. The eye is unfailingly drawn to the way these elements play off one another, whether it is the height of a grain elevator set within a flat horizon, a road and fence line playing off rolling hills, or the starkness of an abandoned farmhouse silhouetted against a limitless sky. These kinds of elements often find their way into my work. They can evoke narratives from a collective history, as it is forever playing out, and invite personal interpretation in the mind of the viewer.
Sometimes in the open spaces of the west, there doesn’t seem to be much to see at all. Instead, there is a nearly overpowering sense of the space itself — the receding ground plane and the big open sky. I often try to capture that feeling of space on a flat panel or canvas. These kinds of spaces can engender the feeling of liberation as well as a sense of anxiety, often at the same time. These conflicting emotions sometimes find expression in my work.
Exploring color is at the core of how I work. Color fascinates me, as different hues have different meanings to each individual, to our culture and to our underlying collective consciousness. By building up colors in thin, sequential layers on the painting’s surface, I am able to explore the way specific colors are affected by the colors underneath and adjacent to them, as well as how a selected range of colors work into the overall composition.
I try to create art that works on more than one level. When someone first sees a work of art, a process of interpretation inevitably takes place as one tries to make sense of what they are looking at. The idea here is this: before that process begins, there ought to be a moment of reaction between the eye and the art that is more purely instinctual and emotional, more like something from the gut or the back of the brain. I work towards that immediate impact as well as towards the more nuanced and layered interpretations that can occur as one spends more time with the work. With any luck, those personal interactions continue to evolve as one lives with the art. I work toward these kinds of expression in my work.
Education
Masters of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 1982.
Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 1980.
Associate of Arts, Wenatchee Valley College, Wenatchee, WA 1975.
Arts and Associated Arts Education
Intensive course instruction, painting: Accademie d’Arte, Florence, Italy, 2022.
Soft pastel workshop: Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA, 1997. Susan Bennerstrom, instructor.
Design, architectural design, architectural graphics: University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania.
Life drawing, graphic design, ceramics, watercolor and studio arts: Wenatchee Valley College, Western Washington State College, University of Washington, University of Pennsylvania.
Exhibitions
2024 Combine Art Collective, Featured Artist April 2024, Walla Walla, WA
2022 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Solo Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2017 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2015 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2013 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Solo Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2012 Seattle Art Museum Gallery, Group Exhibition, Seattle, WA.
2011 SMITH Exhibits, Solo Exhibition, Roslyn, WA.
2011 Robert Graves Gallery at Wenatchee Valley College, Solo Exhibition, Wenatchee, WA.
2010 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2010 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2010 The Gallery at Loomis Hall, Solo Exhibition, Blaine, WA.
2009 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2008 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2008 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2007 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2006 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Solo Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2005 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA .
2005 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA .
2004 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA .
2003 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA .
2002 Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Group Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2000 Home Tour Poster Competition, Finalists Exhibit, Bainbridge Performing Arts Center, Bainbridge Island, WA.
2000 Northwest Pastel Society International, Group Exhibition, Gig Harbor, WA.
1999 Northwest Pastel Society International, Group Exhibition, Eugene, OR.
1998 The Harbour Public House, Solo Exhibition, Bainbridge Island, WA.
Other
Donated art: Bainbridge Arts & Crafts, Bainbridge Island, WA. Various years and events.
Participant: Seattle Art Museum Gallery art rental program, 2012.
Donated art: Call to the Wild Auction, West Sound Wildlife Shelter, Bainbridge Island, WA 2012.
Donated art: Bainbridge In Bloom Auction, Bainbridge Island, WA 2012.
Participant: Bainbridge Arts & Crafts art rental program, 2007 to present, locating art in public buildings and offices throughout Kitsap County.
Donated art: Arcade Magazine Annual Auction, Seattle, WA December 2008, December 2009.
Donated art: Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council Auction for the Arts, October 2007.
Donated art: Call for the Cure Auction for the Arts, Bainbridge Island, WA, October 2004.