Scottie Wilson (1891-1972)
Distinctive hatch marks provide texture in his works
populated by sinister 'greedies and evils' in his earlier pieces, later replaced serenely decorative swans and fish. (combat between the good and evil)
fascinated by a pen at a store and felt compelled to use it.
"The pen seem to make me draw, then images, the faces and designs just flowed out. i couldn't stop - i never stopped since that day"
He doesn't like selling his works.
stuck mainly to a narrow range of visual elements..botanical forms, birds and animals, clowns etc.
"When I'm working I can see what's happening, and I can imagine what's going to happen. I can see best when I'm finishing my pictures with a pen. When I'm making strokes; hundreds and thousands of strokes"
Later drawings are more symmetrical, coloured pencil and wax crayon were added to his tool kit, and the cross-hatching became more complex. One curator has identified 7 styles of cross-hatching angles, double shark's fin, rope, overlapping shoals, wavy forms, saw teeth and scales.
evolution of his style was notoriously non-existent and, because he did not date most of his works, it is very difficult to place his works in time apart from the few documentary records that exist
in 1960s, Wilson began to to create paintings on plates.
works were initially rendered in black and white ink, later in colour.
a favourite with the surrealists.
compositions spread outwards from the support centre and symmetrical to that axis.
