Scotty Peek

Scotty Peek lives in Columbia, SC and teaches Art at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School. Prior to joining the Heathwood faculty, Scotty was an Assistant Professor of Art at South Carolina State University, held positions from Preparator to Assistant Director at several South Carolina Museums and Galleries, and taught art courses part-time at the University of South Carolina and Midlands Technical College. He received his Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of South Carolina in 2000 and his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Austin Peay State University (TN) in 1995. Scotty was included in the 2004 Triennial at the South Carolina State Museum, was one of four artists selected for 701 Center for Contemporary Art’s inaugural 2008 exhibit, and was one of nine artists recently included in “En Plein Air: Scenes of SC” at the Columbia Museum of Art.  Scotty is represented in Columbia by Mike Brown Contemporary, in Charlotte by Shain Gallery, in Greenville by Art & Light Gallery, in Atlanta by Spalding Nix Fine Art, in Hilton Head/Bluffton by Camellia Art, and in Mobile by Sophiella Gallery.

Statement:
I paint and draw, mostly landscapes, often abstracted.

I appreciate the marks within a work of art, including the initial mistakes, accidents, and other struggles left visible even as parts of the representational image become more clarified. Though I start each painting from life or photos, I usually abandon the reference to focus on how the painting functions as a non-representational painting. I sometimes go back to the reference, re-finding and pulling forward parts of the realistic image, but may ultimately obscure them again, drawing the viewer’s attention away from the image and back to the line. I aim to find a balance between representation and non-representation.