Roman Scott Gallery

"The urban landscape of New York City has been my primary muse for more than ten years. The interaction of the man-made structures and the tempestuous moods of nature supply me with an endless slate of subjects. The seemingly inviolable, hard buildings and streets soften and refract, subject to the times of day, seasons, and weather conditions. At night the electric lights from signage, street lights, and headlights twist and dance, reflected in the glistening magma of wet pavement, pools, and waterways. I translate the energy of the moment into the language of oil paint on canvas. In capturing the specific mood of a time and place, I rely on a combination of photography, drawing, and memory to supply me with enough convincing detail. In order to be convincing as a representational artist, it is as important to know what to exclude from a scene as it is to know what to include. In my paintings of brick walls and the old signs left behind on them, I am not so much preserving the mood from a given moment. Rather, I preserve a record of simultaneous decades, a kind of geological time frame. The painterly process mimics the gradual, natural processes of erosion and decay, with which implacable Time subjects our humanly aspirations. These 'wall portraits' then are a type of vanitas, viewable by some as nostalgic, by others as tragic." Roman Scott, March 2000