A prolific painter throughout his career, Scott was born in England and arrived in NZ in 1952 to later study at Elam School of Fine Arts at The University of Auckland. Early works featured landscapes in a realist style, before including pop art elements such as super-real images of women. From 1976-82 the Lattice series developed over 150 abstract variations of the suburban motif, made up of interweaving diagonals of colour. Later series involve the overlaying of images, such as famous paintings and NZ landscapes superimposed with portraits of artists, and images taken from the popular media and NZ life; he was among the first of New Zealand practitioners to use ‘found’ images in painting. A painter who combined modernist and pop influences, Scott challenged established traditions throughout his practice, making an important contribution to New Zealand abstraction.
