William Forrestall:
Biography
William Forrestall’s iconic still life works have been recognized for their unique contribution to contemporary art in over 100 solo and group exhibitions. His awards include provincial and Canada Council grants, a Brucebo Traveling Fellowship and other awards. His work is represented in the Canada Council Art Bank, New Brunswick Museum, The Nova Scotia Art Gallery, The New Brunswick Art Bank, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery and other public and private collections.
He has served on numerous boards including New Brunswick Arts Board juries, president and board member of Gallery Connexion, and the Maritime board of CARFAC. He is currently serving on the national Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.
He conceived and planned the restoration of the lost 1948 Fred Ross mural, and wrote and edited a book on the project with Charlie Hill and Virgil Hammock published by the University of New Brunswick in 2013. He is currently teaching at St. Thomas University where he also runs the university art gallery.
Stephen Scott:
Artist Statement
The consistency of my work lies in the expressive struggle to use the image as a bridge between the felt and the observed.
Biography
Stephen Scott was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. Three primary influences formed his direction. Clive Roberts was at that time art specialist in the school district and his influence encouraged Scott’s interest in the arts. As well the opening of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and its British collection instituted for him a sense of awe in the power of the visual image, particularly for figurative art. Finally, family roots in rural New Brunswick gave him subject, and a romantic yearning which found outlet in painting. Following secondary school he spent a year in Europe after which he studied Fine Arts at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Ontario 1972-73 and obtained a BFA from Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick 1978. He obtained a Master of Arts in Art Therapy from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec in 1998.
Stephen has developed his primary exhibition experience in east coast Canada. The evolution of Scott’s painting has shown numerous formal transitions while maintaining its core emphasis on subject and literary narrative. A sense of place is evident in his work, and a lifelong fascination for landscape includes its power to evoke, and to carry a projection of mood. Travel has also had a notable influence and he has resided for periods in Antwerp, Belgium, Sweden, and Germany. The topography of Scott’s work contains in its complexities, a highly emotional, personal style.
Show Statement:
The nature of representation and by extension, of realism, has involved the idea of literal visual transcription vs. interpretation. The artist David Hockney has provided convincing research on the influence of the camera obscura (an antecedent of photography) on the historical development of realist and naturalist idioms in painting. At this point in time a rapprochement has been gained regarding traditional aesthetic or philosophical distances between painting and photography, which leaves the idea of interpretation of subject. In this lies the area of aesthetics, and the presence of style.
Stylistic concerns allow the artist’s individual qualities to become manifest, and develop toward a consistency of visual expression. Formal qualities underly stylistic mannerisms, but it is the artists’ reflection of experience which defines the evocative strength or transmutative quality of the image. An examination of the works of Robert Frank or the paintings of Alex Colville reveals the importance of the artists’ presence, or experience. The interpretation of content and unique viewpoint plays a main role in the images’ strength and moves the nature of the object away from its’ primary formal underpinnings into an area where content and manner of expression are interdependent.
The paintings of William Forrestall and Stephen Scott show a huge diversity in approach, including subject, technique and philosophy. William’s still lifes render common objects or even invented objects in a way that owes their nature to realist formulas of perspective and representational observation. Scott’s paintings explore figurative and landscape motifs which appears directly observant and emotionally expressive. On a deeper level, William shapes the content and structure of his imagery in a way that expands the repertoire of association beyond mean description or overt narrative. Scott’s imagery and style seeks to explore nuances of meaning through an expressive approach, and by avoiding direct linear narrative or prosaic use of content.
A binding philosophy between two seeming disparate painting methods is the evocative use of representation to describe and define emotional or intellectual content, and to provide the non-partisan viewer with sources for contemplative association. Directness of focus and basic fidelity to naturalist representation show the influence of observation, and what is left is poetry.