The landscape has served as a muse for artists over centuries. Landscape paintings capture moments in time and provide glimpses into the evolution (and sometimes decline) of an environment. At their best they are aesthetically challenging portraits of our world and evoke greater appreciation for the magic and the mystery of nature.
The Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) will soon open “America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott,” a gallery showcasing the nature-inspired landscape paintings of renowned artist Michael Scott, alongside works from the museum’s own collection.
“Michael creates incredible, evocative landscape paintings that go from ceiling to floor,” Elizabeth Pierce, CMC’s president and CEO, says. “His artwork is an entry point into appreciating nature in a greater way.”
A Kansas City native, Scott received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Upon graduating, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the University of Cincinnati where he completed his graduate studies. Soon after, Scott began working in Canada and exhibiting in galleries in Chicago and New York, where he made his mark for his breathtaking landscape portraits.
“My first real introduction to landscape painting occurred when I received a fellowship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine,” Scott explains. “I think my Midwestern upbringing — plus, me being me — allowed me to feel very comfortable creating landscapes. Far more comfortable, in fact, than figure paintings, which is what I was originally trained to do.”
Scott’s early work, exhibited in New York during the 1980s, depicted environmental devastation such as acid rain and clear-cutting, and their tragic effects on the environment. The somber subject matter soon took a toll on Scott’s mental health.
“After making so many paintings about clear-cutting and slash-and-burn, I became depressed. I had to take a break from those images,” Scott says. “When I returned to the landscape years later I approached it differently. I didn’t approach it solely as a conversation on devastation. Instead, I approached it as a dual concept, one being the health of the planet and one as a conversation about human health. We need a healthy planet for our bodies and our souls.
‘America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott’ is meant to be a spiritual journey, and it’s up to viewers to determine what messages are being portrayed.”
Scott began creating pieces for his “Preternatural” collection in 2012. The work was first shown in Los Angeles at the Autry Museum of the American West, then the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and now CMC — the first natural history museum to display the collection. The exhibit features 33 of Scott’s large-scale landscape paintings (between 6 to 10 feet in height) along with 43 of his on-site field works. The largest piece, a diptych showcasing the Buffalo River in Northern Arkansas, stands at 15 feet.
“This project started when I began questioning the role of art within the American landscape over the past 200 years, along with the histories and creation of the National Parks,” Scott says. “I was also questioning where one can still find pristine land in this day and age. My thoughts started out historical, then became contemporary, then environmental, and they finally snowballed into the Earth’s four elements, which is a much bigger conversation than what I had initially conceived.”
Scott notes that his paintings are large by design, as a way to activate a peripheral part of the viewer.
“These paintings are meant to make people walk around,” Scott says. “It’s like a dance, the same dance that takes place on site when I create the field paintings.”
Scott believes partnering with CMC will allow viewers to experience his work in a richer, more meaningful way. A selection of animal specimens and fossils will connect the natural worlds depicted in the artwork.
“When painting a landscape, I’m not necessarily trying to depict, for example, the Ice Age. However, having a display that includes fossils from 30 million years ago is a rare opportunity for science and art to come together to educate,” Scott says.
“America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott” also includes an original score created by Cincinnati-based composer, Richard Bitting. The composition, based on the four elements, has instrumentals representing fire, water, earth, and air.
“The soundtrack is an integral part of the experience,” Scott says. “The audio submersion allows viewers to be present in the landscapes.”
Ultimately, Scott hopes visitors will leave the exhibit questioning the role of the human, both over time and today, and how we can care for the planet moving forward.
“We’re all in this together,” Scott explains. “My hope is these paintings will activate viewers’ emotions and stir something deep inside. I want to make people fall in love with nature’s mysteries — reason being, if you love something, then you will want to protect it and take care of it for generations to come.”
“We want people to be transformed by their experience,” Pierce adds.
In addition to Scott’s landscape paintings, “America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott” highlights work from local landscape artists including Rudolph Tschudi, John Casper Wild, William Louis Sonntag and Robert S. Duncanson. These paintings, primarily from the 19th Century, show views of Cincinnati from across the Ohio River in Covington and Newport, as well as views of Forest Hills, The Mill Creek, Burnet Woods, and Ault Park.
“America’s Epic Treasures featuring Preternatural by Michael Scott” opens to the public on May 27 and will be included with general admission. The exhibit is generously supported by Marilyn J. Scripps, Phillip and Whitney Long, and Helen and Brian Heekin.
Want to become one with nature and explore Michael Scott’s immersive landscape paintings? Get your tickets at cincymuseum.org/tickets.