Scott Owen

Artist Interview

What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?

I work in oil and acrylic and have been finding a nice balance between the two. I've been seeking out brighter, neon colours in parts of my paintings and I get that through acrylic underpainting. Oil paint comes in afterwards though and has a soulfulness about it. It's slow, mercurial and wild.

How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?

I work across many ideas at different stages through research, drawings, small paintings and larger works. Sometimes an idea takes shape and becomes a series of work quite fast and others are still partially worked on, waiting for something new to spark creative solutions. I find text helpful and write down ideas from possible titles or jumping off points to definitions of words I've found interesting like 'posticipation' which means knowing too late what you might have known in advance.

Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?

I have a painting studio upstairs at my favourite pub. I had been a resident DJ there for about 5 years at one point and the rapper who had the room as his music studio moved to a bigger workspace opening the door for me to start painting there. I've had a lot of great nights with my friends at that pub, DJ'd there countless times, have been painting there for years now and even got married there.