WORK OF THE WEEK: Exuma Breeze by Stephen Scott Young

Stephen Scott Young
Exuma Breeze
watercolor on cotton rag
10 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches

In 1985 Stephen Scott Young won first prize in watercolor in American Artist's national art competition. Since then his career has flourished and his paintings have met with critical acclaim often being compared to the work of other realist masters such as Wyeth, Homer, and Eakins. Young's work has developed toward ever-increasing depth of space and ever-greater facility in handling the human figure. For his sense of dramatic design and luminous, clear color, Young perhaps owes most to Homer.Young has been said to draw with his watercolors meticulously constructing them with careful stippling. Young creates his images with careful accuracy and has the ability to create figures that are not simply flat but have volume and weight. A virtuoso realist in the classic tradition, Stephen Scott Young remains an anomaly on the modern scene. Young's paintings are not simply nostalgic but address the concerns of contemporary life. Visually, they possess an indisputably modern abstract power of design. Thematically, they deal with issues of race and human dignity that are particularly pertinent to the current American social condition.

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 School of Art and Design. Young has devoted his career to depicting the southern United States and the Bahamas. Exhibited nationally and internationally, Young is one of the nation's premiere realist watercolorists and etchers. Young's work is on display at several major American museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary 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. In May of 2012, Young began exhibiting a retrospective of the past twenty five years of his career painting the Bahamas. The opening at Christie's in New York City coincided with the publication of Once Upon an Island: Stephen Scott Young in the Bahamas, written by art historian William H. Gerdts.

Stephen Scott Young was recently featured in Garden & Gun magazine discussing his work and Bahamian influences. The article can be read HERE. 

Contact us for pricing and inquiries about this work 

203.869.3664 or art@cavaliergalleries.com