Sometimes a painting will come to the gallery and will elicit the same response from nearly every visitor when they first view it. In the case of “Life,” by Scott Christensen, that reaction is, “WOW.”
Below is the work, in all its beautiful framed glory, with Asher the gallery dog helping out as a reference for scale.
This grand, atmospheric landscape of the Georgia marshlands measures an impressive 70 inches by 70 inches, and that’s without the frame! The stunningly beautiful handcrafted wooden frame surrounding the painting brings its total dimensions to about 82 x 82. The stately and colossal nature of the work is just part of its incredible attraction.
The composition itself is lovely and carefully created, as is typical of Scott’s artwork. An instructor as well as a painter, Scott regularly emphasizes the importance of careful composition. His nuanced and wisely restrained color palette has also contributed to his status as one of America’s most respected and renowned landscape painters. “Life” is an excellent example of these qualities in Scott’s art, as the hushed color palette and inviting composition (especially at this large scale) create a mesmerizing effect on the viewer. Frequently-heard descriptors from viewers include words like poetic, ethereal, atmospheric, moody, magical, spellbinding, breathtaking, hauntingly beautiful, romantic, soft, serene– the list goes on and on.
When she saw the piece in Charleston, artist and blogger Barbara Stroud wrote a blog post about “Life” in which she said in praise, “I’m not kidding you when I say we walked into the room and stopped in our tracks. This painting is a stunner.” (You can read more here!) Formerly the M Gallery of Art, Principle Gallery Charleston originally showed this beauty, but we now have the honor of displaying it at our Alexandria gallery! For those of you near enough to us to visit, be assured that “Life” is one of those pieces that, while lovely in photographs, is worth enjoying in its full glory in person.
You can check out a cool video Scott Christensen made of the stages of progress on this work here!
