How Scott Seas Colours

Art by Scott Christensen

Art by Scott Christensen

Art by Scott Christensen

Art by Scott Christensen

Art by Scott Christensen

That filtered light and aqua hues pearling the tips of breaking waves, the unlikely purples breezing lightly across sands dappled by shade…

They might not be as profound as the Picasso eye or the Da Vinci eyelash, but they are visual elements as powerful as the outback ochres, reds and oranges mastered by Pro Hart, or the vividly viewed kaleidoscope of colour characterising Ken Done.

Australia – a cornucopia of colour and Scott Christensen, a Redlands resident who has mastered the art of interpreting its seascapes – it’s a vibrant and very successful combination.

North Stradbroke Island dominates Scott’s focus and his seascapes reflect an understanding that only people, very comfortable in the water, get to experience.

Whether it’s the seasoned skipper watching the bowsprit of a boat stubbornly pushing through the arcing crescent of a wave just before it spills its force on a sunny day, or a surfer paddling through the swells and breaks on a day of surfing Nirvana, it’s those people who understand the essence of the ‘crystal cylinder’ who will have an elevated understanding of just how engaging Scott’s talent really is.

The appeal of North Stradbroke Island to this gifted artist?

“It’s very much untouched – and that’s what I like to show in my work,” Scott said.

“It’s one place where there are less buildings, less build-up, less urban sprawl.”

“A lack of humans and a lack of human activity.”

But it’s the vibrancy of the North Gorge, of Cylinder Beach, of the pristine water on good days when there hasn’t been too much rain and the long, clean sweep of Flinders Beach which draw in his talents.

Scott’s paintings are not photo-realistic – they are his interpretations of the magnificent vistas of Straddie which then are assembled into stunning compositions of the most vibrant elements.

“I think the biggest challenge, but it’s also the biggest opportunity, is the ‘composition’ of my paintings. It’s also an advantage I have over photographers,” Scott, a keen photographer himself, says candidly.

“I can just piece it together how I see it – I can take different elements from different beaches put them together and it’s all my composition, mostly.”

“I’ll go to a place, get a heap of photos and I’ll create a sketch from them and continue to work on it.”

“When I’ve got that sketch right, then I can move to the canvas.”

“It’s exaggerated – it shows no-one has been there in the morning. There are no footprints – that means you’re alone on that beach.”

“Every one of these seascapes is different. Every day is different – tides change, clouds come over, it changes continually.”

And the visual key to getting that crest of the wave just right in Barbados green? (Yes, a colour named after an island in the Caribbean may seem somewhat unconnected with North Stradbroke Island, but remember, this also was one of the colours chosen by Holden for its 1974 L34 Torana SLR 5000 and that’s about as Australian as things used to get).

Scott responds: “It’s the thinnest part of the water and that’s where the light comes through.”

Scott first began painting Stradbroke Island scenes around 1998.

“I started doing it because I love surfing, love boating – the whole sea thing.”

“Before that, I was drilling under roads as a directional driller. Did it for seven years – the work was hard and the hours were long.”

“When I told those guys at work that I was going to leave and become an artist, they just didn’t believe me.” But it was a great decision.

Scott’s artistic talents were not so evident at school – but the distractions were. Ironically, a teacher who sought to steer him in a different direction attitudinally, is now one of his most supportive and respected advocates.

Dr Lyn Bishop, later to become founder, principal and head administrator at Sheldon College, could just have easily been referring to Scott’s future direction when she penned of her own early years: “We were taught that in hardship you develop a capacity to appreciate the beauty that exists in the simplest elements of life.”

And in terms of his life as a driller from which he sought change, Dr Bishop was perhaps equally insightful, when she again wrote of herself: “When you can no longer walk the talk and believe fundamentally in what you are doing, you, have to go.”

And go he did – down a different career path that now sees his oils on canvas represented under licensing agreements in the United States; original oils on canvas selling locally up to $20,000 AUD and superb limited edition prints being snapped up by around the world.

Scott’s wife Shannon, creates the limited edition prints from Scott’s original works.

These are no cheapie cheap, $100 print-on-canvas reproductions marketed these days as extended over-the-counter photo services by national brand name retailers.

A Christensen print is the real deal – unique compositions and vibrancy topped with three coats of an imported clear sealer credited with being stable for next 100 years.

His latest private commission is from a married couple for a four metres by one metre composition of a creek at Pottsville in northern New South Wales, to display in their residence.

“I’m always looking for ways to keep inspired. The bigger the challenge, the better it is,” Scott said.

“But If I won the Lotto, I’d still paint and I’d still paint the surf as well,” he said drilling home the point that this artistic road, still has a way to be travelled …

You can see some more of Scott’s work at: scottchristensen.com.au