Journey to Center: New Mexico Watercolors by Sam Scott

The Museum occasionally invites contemporary artists to share projects that resonate with the work of O’Keeffe in a series that is intended to create a dialogue between the past and present, enriching our understanding of O’Keeffe, encouraging us, in the words of O’Keeffe, to “take time to look.”

Painter Sam Scott is known internationally for his monumental abstract oil paintings collected in the US and Europe. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum presents an installation of twenty surprisingly small watercolors, studies of light and color, painted during August of 2016. Inspired by the same high desert terrain of New Mexico that captivated Georgia O’Keeffe, Scott created the sequence in vibrant hues that reverberate with the passion and energy of O’Keeffe’s landscapes while reflecting his distinct artistic sensibility.

Scott has lived and worked in Santa Fe since 1969. His work has been the focus of local exhibitions at the New Mexico Museum of Art, Sam Scott: An American Voice, 1967-1997, and the Center for Contemporary Arts, Messages from the Wounded Healers. His artwork was included in the 1975 Whitney Biennial. He has been recognized for his work by the French government with awards and exhibitions. He earned an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where his teachers included abstract painters Philip Guston and Clyfford Still, among others.