Stephen Scott Young (b. 1957 Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American artist best known for his watercolor paintings and

etchings Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

that depict everyday life on the east coast of the United States and the

Out Islands The Out Islands are the islands that make up the Bahamas with the exception of New Providence Island, where the capital and largest city, Nassau, is located and Grand Bahama Island, where Freeport is located.David Hamilton-Jones, "Problems of In ...

of The Bahamas. Often painting

genre scenes Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

of quotidian life, Young's work is noted for his strikingly realist use of watercolor and eloquent simplicity of subject matter done in the American realist tradition. Young's copperplate etchings evidence a strident attention to detail and intricacy that suggest the influence of Rembrandt and Whistler. Though the images he creates are often nostalgic, his work deals with contemporary issues. Art historian Henry Adams wrote of Young in the late 1980s: "He is like one of those prospectors who has gone back to the tailings of an abandoned mine and where others saw only useless rocks found quantities of untapped, undiscovered gold." He has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has work in major American museums, including the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

, the

Greenville County Museum of Art The Greenville County Museum of Art (GCMA) is an art museum located in Greenville, South Carolina. Its collections focus mainly on American art, and its holdings include works by Andrew Wyeth, Josef Albers, Jasper Johns (raised in South Carolina), ...

, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...

Biography

Young's first interest in art arrived during his childhood when his mother gave him picture books of Caravaggio and Vermeer to copy. When he was fourteen years old, his family moved to Gainesville, Florida. Young attended the

Ringling College of Art and Design Ringling College of Art and Design (RCAD) is a private art and design school in Sarasota, Florida. It was founded by Ludd M. Spivey as an art school in 1931 as a remote branch of Southern College but separated by 1933. History The origins of ...

in Sarasota, Florida, where he was trained in printmaking and began to paint with watercolor. In 1985, Young won first prize in a national art competition held by American Artist magazine. Soon after, he traveled to the islands of the Bahamas, which he has been depicting since. In addition to the Bahamas, Young has painted rural scenes of everyday life from the coastal northeast and southern United States, especially Vermont, Floria, the Carolinas, and the Californias In May 2012, Young began exhibiting a retrospective of the past twenty-five years of his career painting the Bahamas. The opening at Christie's in New York City coincided with the publication of ''Once Upon an Island: Stephen Scott Young in the Bahamas'' by art historian William H. Gerdts. Young is referred to as "the Winslow Homer of his day," with high-demand work. He has been described as "A virtuoso realist in the classic tradition," and "an anomaly on the modern scene." Young has been married since 1981 to Anna Farrington, who was a fellow art student at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Farrington is a seventh-generation descendant of Bahamian settlers. The couple has two daughters.

Etchings and silverpoint drawings

In addition to painting, Young has contributed a significant part of his career to developing the technique of etching and silverpoint drawing. Trained in printmaking at the Ringling School of Art and Design, Young keeps a press in his Florida studio. In 2007, Young had his first solo etchings exhibition at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama. In 2012, Young exhibited etchings in Adelson Galleries Boston's ''Post War Works on Paper'' show.

Selected bibliography

: Gerdts, William H. (2012). ''Once Upon an Island: Stephen Scott Young in the Bahamas''. New York: Adelson Galleries.

Solo exhibitions

:2013 – "New Works by Stephen Scott Young," Morris and Whiteside Galleries, Hilton Head, SC :2012 – "Stephen Scott Young: I'll Be Your Witness,"

, Greenville, SC :2012 – "Freedom: The Art of Stephen Scott Young," Christie's New York in association with Adelson Galleries, New York, NY :2009 –
In the Copper
Etchings by Stephen Scott Young", Shuptrine Fine Art Gallery, Chattanooga, TN :2008 – "Stephen Scott Young
En Pointe!
Shuptrine Fine Art Gallery, Chattanooga, TN :2007 – "Stephen Scott Young, A Master Among Us
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL
in association with Shuptrine Fine Art. :2005 – "Remix: Stephen Scott Young," Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC :2004 – "A View from the Bahamas,"

Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale The NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is an art museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Originating in 1958 as the ''Fort Lauderdale Art Center'', the museum is now located in an modernist building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. The current buildin ...

, Ft. Lauderdale, FL :2004 – "Stephen Scott Young: A Portrait of Greenville," Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC :1994 – "Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition," Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL :1993 – "Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition," Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL :1993 – "Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition," Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR :1993 – "Stephen Scott Young: In the American Tradition," The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH :1989 – "Stephen Scott Young," Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL :1989 – "Stephen Scott Young,"

Hunter Museum of American Art The Hunter Museum of American Art is an art museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The museum's collections include works representing the Hudson River School, 19th century genre painting, American Impressionism, the Ashcan School, early modernism, ...

, Chattanooga, TN

Selected group exhibitions

:2012 – "Post War Works on Paper," Adelson Galleries Boston, Boston, MA :2008 – "Masters of Watercolor: Andrew Wyeth and His Contemporaries," Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

Selected collections

:Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, MO :Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR :Asian Museum of Watercolor Art, Haikou, Hainan Province, China :

Brandywine River Museum The Brandywine Museum of Art is a museum of regional and American art located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Brandywine Creek. The museum showcases the work of Andrew Wyeth, a major American realist painter, an ...

, Chadds Ford, PA :Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH :Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH :Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC :

, Kansas City, MO :Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, Alabama :Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL

References

Review, ''American Arts Quarterly'', Volume 26, number 3

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Nolan, John M. ''A Guide to Historic Greenville, South Carolina,'' p. 132

Exhibition Announcement, Art Business News

Featured Artist: Stephen Scott Young: New Works April 15th through May 29th, 2009

Watercolor Paintings & Silverpoint Drawings by Stephen Scott Young, ''Watercolor Magazine'', February 22, 2010

Stephen Scott Young: A Modern Master Explores New Subjects & Techniques, ''Watercolor Magazine'', March 16, 2010

Video Demonstration from American Artist magazine

Tampa Bay Magazine coverage of Stephen Scott Young acquisition, St. Petersburg Museum of Art, FL

Bay area arts patron ratchets up his support, ''St. Petersburg Times'', July 20, 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Stephen Scott Living people American people of Bahamian descent Realist artists American etchers American watercolorists 1957 births