The Show

Meet the Artists

Your Portraits

Scott Sawtell talks with Star Portraits about teaching art and his upcoming series of paintings.

SP: When did you decide to become a professional artist?

SS: I always drew, even as a kid. I remember going to my grandmothers and she would basically give me a pad of paper and I would sit there and draw, that is how I would spend my time. Leaving high school I was not planning on being an artist; it was my number two plan. My number one plan was to be an animator. But I didn’t like it, so then I went to school at OCAD University with plans of being a designer. Somehow, I started taking classes in art and it [professional artist] happened from there.

SP: You are a teacher at Brock University and OCAD University. How does teaching art differ from the art you produce for yourself?

Actually, they are a bit different, but the main connection is that you are constantly problem solving. It teaches you to be critical but at the same time, cause I'll have a class of 20 students and each are doing their own work, I have to constantly try and help my students with their problems. This does carry over into my work.

SP: Do you find that teaching art helps you with your art at all?

SS: I suppose so. It helps for a few reasons. Number one, in terms of keeping you active, it makes me look into a lot of different art that I might not otherwise look into. My students will have a diverse set of things they are interested in and I need to make sure I also know them. For instance, I might not have been as interested in abstraction as I am now if not for teaching. In that way it definitely helps. Secondly, it also helps because being an artist you are sometimes working alone; from a social aspect it helps being around people for creativity.

SP: How would you describe your work to someone that has never seen it?

SS: It's sort of difficult, because, talking about art is like dancing about architecture (this is a play on an Elvis Costello quote); it's pretty visual. My work is like history painting. I basically paint collections from museums and then from things, like the flash of the camera or reflection of the glass. I combine things to find the meaning that might be hidden. There is a bit of abstraction that actually happens on top of the actual painting that is meant to show that there is some sort of other reality; normally I just say I make big oil paintings (laughs).

SP: What did you think it was going be like on Star Portraits?

SS: I actually knew quite a few people that have been on Star Portraits in the first season, and understood what it was going to be like. I thought it was going to be more difficult to complete the painting in two weeks. I guess the challenge is not necessarily to finish the painting, but to finish a dry oil painting (laughs). I had to change the way I normally paint. Normally, I paint very thickly and with not much medium mixed in, but for Star Portraits I had to add a lot of drying medium and paint thinner than I normally would. But in terms of experiences, it was very positive.

SP: Which artists influence your work?

SS: There are lots of people that influence me. I think part of reason I paint the way I do is because so many people influence me. If you look at my normal paintings outside of the show, they aren't very traditional but I combine classical way of painting them.

SP: Where do you see yourself and your art work in the future?

SS: I am shifting my focus to a new series. The previous series was based on the collections at the Royal Ontario Museum. My new work will be based on the displays and the dioramas at the Canadian War Museum.

Artist Stats

Scott Sawtell is an art instructor at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, ON and Brock University in St. Catharines, ON. He previously taught at Georgian College in Barrie, ON.  Scott has an Master of Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo and is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design.  He maintains a continuing artistic career showing work across Canada and the United States.

www.scottsawtell.ca