By Carolyn Lewis

It’s a pleasure to spend time with artist Scott Pascoe in his cool studio upstairs at the Port Townsend Post Office. Who knew that art was being created behind the facade of that beautiful building. Pascoe enjoys an amazing view through floor-to-ceiling windows as sunlight floods his space. Music plays softly and the atmosphere seems to be perfect for the work he does.

Q: Can you tell me a bit about your journey into art? 

I had very supportive parents who were passionately interested in the arts themselves. A father who taught me both the technical and creative process of photography at the age of 13. A thorough early education on the full spectrum of art media and comprehensive art history from grades 6 through 12, through an inspirational and supportive art teacher Don Laughlin, who was a highly skilled practicing artist himself.

From my early to late 20s, I took classes in watercolor, oil, drawing, wood carving and photography at The Factory of Visual Arts located at the Good Shepherd Center in Seattle. The classes afforded a unique opportunity to explore different media and were all taught by professional artists practicing in the greater Seattle area. My passionate interest in drawing started here. Painting came later, after taking a pastel class at Pratt Fine Art Center in Seattle. This is the medium I took up again six years ago, after my supposed retirement.

Q: Talk about Nihonga and how you became interested in this style of painting. 

In 2022, I expanded my painting practice from pastel to Nihonga, a Japanese style of painting using mineral pigments. I attended a five-day intensive workshop in this medium at Whidbey Art Center prior to a month-long artist residency in Kyoto in September, 2022. What I discovered in Japan was an affinity between Nihonga and practices I adopted in pastel: layering with pigments, capturing light and the movement and expressiveness of brush work. I love working with traditional Japanese materials like washi (Japanese paper made of kozo/gampi fibers), traditional pigments, and gofun (bleached ground oyster shell). These are all applied with hake bushes (for washes) and fude brushes (for line work and gradation). I am taking classes in ink painting (sumi-e) and abstract drawing to expand my repertoire of mark-making and hone my capability to paint simply, expressively and abstractly.

With careful preparation and practice the kozo/gampi paper can hold up to 60 layers. Multiple transparent gofun layers imbed pictorial elements within the layers and create a three-dimensional illusion within a two-dimensional surface. Pure pigments come in multiple particle sizes. The darker colors with coarser particles are laid on last and refract light. These final layers create a luminosity to the surface that other mediums cannot replicate. 

Q: Can you talk a bit about your creative process?

My creative process is informed by a lifetime spent in the Northwest, a 24-plus-year design practice as landscape architect, and 10 years spent in environmental conservation. My life experience in PNW informs an intuitive understanding of this unique place, and through this understanding I have nurtured a visual abstract vocabulary of vernacular color, textures and movement.

I explore, experiment and challenge accepted rules and sequencing. The intent is to move the composition in new directions and challenge myself to adapt and improvise, garnering knowledge along the way. I paint not to represent or render realistically but to convey, through interpretation and abstraction, a sense of a place based on the kinship I feel for coastal and water-born landscapes.

Q: Are there recurring themes or concepts explored in your work?

Water — particularly coastlines, the Salish Sea, islands, estuaries. As a lifetime resident of the Salish Sea coast, I’ve explored, played, collected, hunted and gathered, swam, dove into and under, nearly drowned, paddled on bays, inlets, lakes and rivers. Through continuous contact I have developed a close affinity and attachment with water-borne and coastal landscapes.

Q: What do you hope viewers take away from experiencing your work?

My intent is to have my paintings convey a sense of aging, restoration, and renewal — that the process be evident when the work is examined closely, and the painting grows in value and complexity with repeated viewing. The viewer imparts their own meaning to the art. Through this process, what I intended gets transformed. This is the magic of creating art and is why I paint, photograph and draw. 

I often title my art based on the music I listen to while painting (Pastorale-Beethoven), titles of songs (Mood Indigo, Rhapsody in Blue, Dock of the Bay), series (Leaves of Grass, Islands and Inlets) and a sense of place, with abstract landscapes based on memories, familiarity and emotional resonance.

Q: Do you ever experience a creative block? 

Yes, I have creative blocks particularly in those moments when I question the direction my painting is taking. When creatively blocked, I try not to dwell on a perceived incapacity and let go of any resistance or self-afflicted loss of self-esteem. I seek inspiration elsewhere: clean air and silence in the forest and along coastlines. I take up my camera, go to the boatyard and photograph abstracts. I also check out artist monographs through interlibrary loan. I look at artists and other creatives I’ve always had an interest in and never taken the time to explore. Wait patiently and perceptively for the urge to create to return. Sometimes, this is a matter of days. At other times, months.

Q: Are there any upcoming projects or exhibitions you are excited about?

I have been selected as a 2024 Bloedel Community Creative, which will allow me to access the Bloedel Reserve from dawn to dusk throughout 2024. The mission of Bloedel Reserve’s Community Creative Project is to foster creative thinking inspired by nature and to explore the connection between humans and the environment. Through this program I will concentrate on the unique character and relationship between the designed landscape and restored and natural settings of the Reserve. I will work on a portfolio of abstract landscapes that reflect a sense of place, temporality, movement, texture, play of light and shadow, and seasonal colors of the reserve.

Carolyn Lewis is a serial entrepreneur, artist and community builder happily living and working in Port Townsend. Visit her Facebook group at Port Townsend Life or on Instagram @CarolynAnneLewis.