Scott Everingham creates environments that are at once tangible and indeterminate, acting as modes of escape to fictional or alternative realities. In these spaces, paint makes up the structure and life of architecture and the human form. Paint is used as a tool to characterize familiar signs and forms. His approach to the development of a painting is impulsive and instinctual, with each mark informing the next – producing work that is both deliberate and spontaneous. Everingham’s ambiguous, unfamiliar settings – with broken structures and visceral anatomy made from the language of paint – may suggest surreal fiction, yet represent complicated or calming spaces for the experiential.
His most recent series is currently showing (ending Sunday, November 29) at:
Paul Petro Special Projects
962 Queen Street West
Toronto, Canada
Tues-Sat: 12-6 / Sun: 12-5
Event Link >>
Lone Stem, 2009.
34″ x 30″
oil on canvas
Whether you are an art lover, collector or simply a fan of walking down Queen West’s Gallery District, make sure to stop in this weekend to see in person the rich colours and textures of Scott’s work. He and I had a few minutes to talk about the show last Saturday between the steady streams of admirers.
MB: How long did you work on these pieces?
SE: 5 months. I paint everyday I paint from about 6:30AM to about 11.
MB: Is this the official colour palate of Scott Everingham, or just the official colour palate for this show?
SE: For the show I did in my graduate program, I used some bolder colours. Because of that, I think I just wanted to simplify it. I wanted to simplify everything in it, restricting myself with how many colours I’m using or using a lot of different blues.
Glass Sling, 2009.
20″ x 20″
oil on canvas
MB: What does the glass represent?
SE: All of these environments have broken structures and opening floors and gaps and spaces, especially in that one… the scraping off just felt like glass to me. Glass speaks or vulnerability to me, and these environments are uncertain, you know… a bit dodgy.
MB: Explain what environment means?
SE: I want to make spaces that you can step into and experience, like a regular space that you recognize, and yet keep everything suggestive. Suggest architecture, suggest human figures and life.
MB: When you have a show and put so much time into work, are you sad when they go?
SE: I’m at a point that I know when I create a work that I cut it off. But, out of each big series of paintings, I keep one. And that is representative of this body of work. I can see that work and picture these?
MB: As I walked up to a painting and focused on a certain section
SE: I love the accident of painting. You noticed this little spot here where it looks like I put two colours next to each other to create an effect, but that just happened. I don’t let me drips go too long, if it happens.
MB: Who is Steven Smart?
SE: Steven Smart is an art consulted, well connected with a lot of galleries. He saw my work and decided to produce the show. He saw my work and he decided to produce the show. So, he’s rented the space, he took care of the openings. He’s put it in the right spots.
MB: So, he produces the show. Does that happen all the time?
SE: No, it doesn’t. Artists can do business without a dealer or without a gallery. Steven is sort of acting as sort of my dealer, just without the building.
Then it’s up to me to keep painting and figure out what’s going to be in the show.
MB: Who are some other artists that appear in your collection?
SE: Sophie Jodoin is represented by Edward Day Gallery (in Toronto), I have Team Macho, a group of guys who show down at Magic Pony. Mostly little paintings or print work. Art is expensive.
————
Stegosaurus, 2009.
20″ x 20″
oil on canvas
Everingham holds a BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, and an MFA from the University of Waterloo, and is a semi-finalist in the 11th RBC Painting Competition that exhibited at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Art Toronto 2009, and at The Power Plant in Toronto from November 21st – 29th. He recently won the Sylvia Knight Award for Studio Excellence from the University of Waterloo, and Best Painting at the 48th Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. He lives and works in Toronto.
http://www.scotteveringham.com/
Tags: Painting, Visual Arts