About Scott Breton
I am a figurative fine artist from Brisbane, Australia.
After completing a science degree in 2005 (BSc (Genetics) University of Queensland) and contemplating a career in research science, I committed fully to pursuing art. I continued a classically leaning arts education and practise begun much earlier, while continuing to work in construction to pay the bills, and ended up completing a carpentry apprenticeship.
In 2009 I was involved with starting an Atelier style art school in Brisbane, Australia, and began teaching traditional drawing, painting and sculpting skills.
In 2012 I won the highly contested A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship, Australia’s largest national prize for developing the careers of traditional representational artists. This allowed me to visit many of the major art museums in Europe and the US, and to study with important contemporary figurative artists. This further convinced me of the relevance of Renaissance thinking and aesthetics to navigating the 21st century.
After winning the Lethbridge 10,000 Small Works prize in 2016, I began regular solo shows with Lethbridge Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. Also in 2016, I was cofounder for The International Arts and Culture Group (TIAC Group), an education startup based in Florence, Italy with links to China and Spain, that has served as a hub for a variety of workshops and exhibitions involving some of the world's best figurative artists.
www.tiac.group
Post-pandemic I am focussed on my artwork, research and writing about aesthetic philosophy and art practise, and teaching regular workshops about drawing, anatomy and composition.
About my work
I am predominantly known for my oil paintings, but I use a range of traditional drawing, painting and sculpting media as well as digital counterparts to these (such as Zbrush, Unreal Engine, Adobe Medium (VR sculpting) and 3D printing). I see plastic composition rather than any particular media as the core of the classical ethos.
I am inspired by the living, gestural qualities of the figure and landscape (I began life drawing from the model at the age of 16 and have continued this as a regular practise for most of the time since), and my work is driven by the desire to transmit this felt experience through the concretisation in physical media. I love the paradox of these elusive qualities becoming fixed for contemplation. This most often translates into a rhythmic and calligraphic interpretation, as well as a spatial exaggeration. Viewers sometimes describe this as feeling like the static image is in motion.
This impulse towards a felt sense of aliveness is coupled to an interest in depth psychology. For pioneer psychologist Jung and others in this field, the mysteries of the unconscious are claimed to drive us, and must be made conscious if we are to become more healthy and less destructive to ourselves and others. I think this is behind my fascination with Surrealism and Symbolism, both of which tug at the threads of parts of our psyche secret even from ourselves.
As well as symbolic objects common to mythology, many visual phenomena provide building blocks for the transmission of subtle psychological qualities, and I use use a variety of atmospheric, light and spatial effects, as well as geometric forms such as semi transparent cubes, planes, and more organic lines wrapping around forms and entering space to explore this elusive territory. The psychological effects of these forms are quite mysterious to me.
And so both these factors – the desire to make concrete the elusive living force of a subject, and an interest in the psychological implications of symbolism, interact in my process of composition to make invisible qualities manifest.
Selected Exhibitions and Prizes
2024 September 20th Solo show at Lethbridge Gallery (Information coming soon)
2023 “Shifting Sands” Solo show at Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington, Brisbane View Collection and videos
2022 “Confessions” Solo show at Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington, Brisbane Article, View Collection
2022 “Interconnected” Group exhibition curated by Beautiful Bizarre magazine, hosted by NERAM (New England Regional Art Museum) Details
2021 Nominated as a “Fellow” of Royal Queensland Art Society
2021 “Anthropomorphisms” Solo show at Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington, Brisbane View Collection
2021 Responses to Jack Lister’s “Still Life” choreography, part of Three by Australasian Dance Collective - displayed at QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Complex, Southbank) View Collection
2020-2021 “Eros: your body as an excuse” Group show at MEAM, Barcelona (The European Museum of Modern Art) https://www.meam.es/en/exhibitions/99/eros-your-body-as-an-excuse.html
2021 “Art of Imagination” Competition, Royal Queensland Art Society (First prize for “Undiscovered”)
2020 “The Shape of the Sky” Solo Show, Lethbridge Gallery, Paddington, Brisbane View collection
2019 Brisbane Portrait Prize (Finalist)
2019 “Timeless” Gallery IX Group Show
2018 World Wide Kitsch Painting Competition (First Prize for “The Sea Has Many Voices”) Read interview
2018 “Whispered Ocean Hymns” Solo Show, Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane View Collection
2018 “Connection” 49th Brisbane Grammar School Art Show, Brisbane, Australia (Feature Artist with others)
2017 “Self Portrait” Florence, Italy (group show in conjunction with Odd Nerdrum)
2017 "Evolve" 48th Brisbane Grammar School Art Show, Brisbane, Australia (Feature Artist)
2017 "Paths to the Half Remembered" Solo show, Lethbridge Gallery View Collection
2017 "Murallas Molinos" Madrid, Spain (group show in conjunction with Antonio Lopez-Garcia)
2017 "Beyond Skills" Alcoy, Spain (group show in conjunction with Golucho)
2016 "Punto Critico" Florence, Italy (group show)
2016 "Beyond Skills: Golucho and Chinese Artists Exhibitions" Florence, Italy
2016 Queensland Figurative Competition (Highly Commended for "Orpheus")
2016 Lethbridge 10,000 (First Prize for "Inland Sea")
2016 Harold and Agnes Richardson Memorial Drawing Prize (First Prize for "An Echo of Space")
2015 Brisbane Grammar School Annual Art Show
2014 Finalist Queensland Figurative Competition
2014 Brisbane Grammar School Annual Art Show
2014 "Journeys West" Exhibition at Orange Regional Gallery, NSW
2014 Harold and Agnes Richardson Memorial Drawing Prize (Commended for "An Australian Mythology")
2013 Brisbane Grammar School Annual Art Show
2012 Winner of A.M.E. Bale Travelling Art Scholarship (Melbourne)
2012 "The Julian Ashton Connection" Royal Queensland Art Society, Brisbane
2012 Brisbane Grammar School Annual Art Show
2012 Harold and Agnes Richardson Memorial Drawing Prize Show, Royal Queensland Art Society
2012 Royal Queensland Art Society Annual Exhibition
2011 Brisbane Grammar School Annual Art Show
2011 Sculptors Queensland Annual Exhibition (Chalkos Fine Art Foundry Art Prize, and Peoples' Choice Prize)
2010-2011 "Evolving Traditions" Group Art Exhibition at Redcliffe City Art Gallery, Redcliffe
2010 Finalist in the A.M.E. Bale Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition, Melbourne
2010 Salisbury Studios Queensland Incorporated Inaugural Exhibition
2010 Finalist Redcliffe Art Society Golden Ox National Art Competition (highly commended)
2010 Finalist Brett Lethbridge 10000 Small Works competition
2008 Finalist in the Alice Bale Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibtion, Melbourne
2004 Exhibited paintings at the Maria Perides Gallery, Newfarm.
2003 Best Emerging Artist Emmanuel College Art Show
Teaching/ Residency
2023 & 24 Workshops in life drawing for The Enduring Design Masterclass for the School of Architecture, University of Queensland
2020-24 Teaching classical life drawing, anatomy and compositional design courses at the Royal Queensland Art Society, Brisbane studios.
2015-24 Life Drawing and Painting workshop delivered to students of Clayfield College, Brisbane, entering Senior
2022 Workshop in life drawing for Queensland Art Teachers Association (professional development)
2022 Workshops in life drawing and composition for students of Brisbane Grammar School
2010-16 Teacher at Atelier Art Classes, Salisbury
2015 Life drawing and Figure Anatomy (simplified Ecorche) for students of ICACEA workshops, Florence
2012 Still life painting workshop at Queensland Art Gallery, for gallery members in conjunction with the "Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado" exhibition
2011 Workshop with year 8 and 9 students from Dakabin State High School during development of a mural at Queensland Rail's Dakabin train station
2010 Artist in Residence at Brisbane Grammar School
2009, 2010 Teacher at Brisbane Artists' Academe
2009 Artist in Residence at Sculptors Qld