Born in Hawaii, Stephen Scott Young spent most of his early life traveling around the United States. Eventually settling in Florida, where he attended the Ringling College of Art and Design. Young has devoted his career to depicting the southern United States and the Bahamas; in the early 1980’s, Young made his first trip to the Bahamas where he discovered the crisp, bright light that has become the hallmark of his paintings today.
Young is best known for his watercolor paintings. Inspired by the work of Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and Andrew Wyeth, Young has done highly finished, detailed figurative subjects. Young’s work is noted for his strikingly realist use of watercolor and eloquent simplicity of subject matter done in the American realist tradition. Young’s copperplate etchings evidence a strident attention to detail and intricacy that suggest the influence of Rembrandt and Whistler. In 2007, represented by Shuptrine’s Gallery, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts gave young a one man show called “A Master among us” of over 50 of his etchings layered with pairing watercolors.. Young openly admits that his favorite pastime is the tedious and challenging craft of the etching. Young openly admits that his favorite pastime is the tedious and challenging craft of etching.
Etching is much more tedious, and thus a more rewarding experience than painting. Both a science and an art, in its simplest form, it is to make a line; nevertheless, that is only the beginning of a long and wondrous journey into the mind of an artist and a scientist. With a paintbrush, the painter can cover large areas in rapid time, and covers his errors with a minimum of effort. However, the etcher must move along at a snail’s pace in comparison, making one line at a time, allowing them to cross and weave together to form an image in his mind, that he is only able to see until hours, sometimes weeks later. It is a long and arduous process, to etch, and only those with particular temperaments will be allowed to enter its wondrous domain.
Though the images he creates are often nostalgic, his work deals with contemporary issues. Art historian Henry Adams wrote of Young in the late 1980s: “He is like one of those prospectors who has gone back to the tailings of an abandoned mine and where others saw only useless rocks found quantities of untapped, undiscovered gold.”
Young began working in watercolor in 1976, and took first prize at the American Artists national art competition in watercolors in 1985. Each masterwork by Stephen Scott Young is preceded by numerous drawings, sketches, studies, and preparatory paintings. The spirits of these works in progress often exceeds the finished subject and, when available, are eagerly sought by collectors. One of his watercolor paintings , The Tournament, sold at Christies Auction in 1998 for $79,500 making Scott perhaps the youngest living artist to have paintings at this venue, then in 2007, a painting called “Red Bows” Sotheby’s sold for a record $348,000. This magnificent watercolor began a new level of acceptance for the artist’s work.
His work may currently be seen at national and international art galleries and is also on display at several major American museums including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art. He is featured in the permanent exhibits of the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and the Greenville County Museum in South Carolina.
Solo Exhibitions:
2014- “In the Copper, “ solo exhibition with Shuptrines Gallery, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
2014 – “Stephen Scott Young”, Wells Gallery in association with Morris & Whiteside Galleries, Kiawah Island, SC
2013 – “New Works by Stephen Scott Young,” Morris and Whiteside Galleries, Hilton Head, SC
2012 – “Stephen Scott Young: I’ll Be Your Witness,” Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
2012 – “Freedom: The Art of Stephen Scott Young,” Christie’s New York in association with Adelson Galleries, New York, NY
2009 “Stephen Scott Young- New Works, Shuptrines Gallery, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
2007 – “Stephen Scott Young, A Master Among Us” Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL
2005 – “Remix: Stephen Scott Young,” Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
2004 – “A View from the Bahamas,” Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
2004 – “Stephen Scott Young: A Portrait of Greenville,” Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
1994 – “Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition,” Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL
1993 – “Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition,” Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL
1993 – “Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition,” Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
1993 – “Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition,” The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1989 – “Stephen Scott Young,” Norton Gallery of Art, Surovek Galleries, West Palm Beach, FL
1989 – “Stephen Scott Young,” Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN
For more of Stephen Scott Young’s available works, please call the gallery at 423.266.4453.