Penelope Scott-McCaig

Artist, Penelope Scott-McCaig, is inspired by the small changes and cycles of life that exist in her garden and in the natural landscape that surrounds where she lives. In her work, Penelope tries to capture the essence of what she sees in nature’s quiet and random beauty:  an untamed and tender grace that is emotional, a harmony and strength that is universal.

In pursuit of a direct and intuitive form of expression, Penelope merges painting and drawing.  While possessing botanical illustrative references, her intention, through gesture, abstraction and often the use of text, is to impart a strong sense of wildness and feeling. The formal and figurative arrangements in her paintings emphasize an impulse to deconstruct and subvert the subject’s inherent beauty, thereby becoming more than just a still-life of a plant or flower.  Arbitrary marks and painterly gesture result from both her spontaneous response to subject as well as careful consideration of formal composition, “The pieces unfold as I return to obscure or embellish earlier moments of the work”.

Penelope studied visual art at the University of Victoria, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with distinction. She has been an artist for 18 years. Penelope Scott-McCaig lives on Vancouver Island, on a small peninsula just outside of the city of Victoria, in British Columbia.
Her paintings can be emotional, sensitive and ethereal, and often represent the agonies and ecstasies of love and life.