Sandy Scott is an artist – and a pilot who understands how objects move through the air. So she’s praised for her avian work – in etchings and in bronze.
“She started with birds 30 years ago,” says Adam Harris, curator of art at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyo. “She carefully studies creatures, because she’s an outdoorswoman.”
Her work is the focus of an exhibition at the museum – 50 bronze works and 30 etchings, paintings and drawings – that runs through mid-April. Two of her monumental sculptures – an eagle and a moose – are on permanent display at the museum. Other large works are featured at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark. and Brookgreen Gardens in Murrell’s Inlet, S.C.
Scott started out as an etcher making engravings, then moved on to sculptures in bronze. “It was a natural transition – first scratching into a metal plate and then printing images,” he says. “So in a way she was working in metal and then moved on to a bigger form of doing that.”
Her sculpture in particular is remarkable because the animals she depicts are not static – they’re active, engaging works of art. And she’s branched out into mammals from birds, while simplifying her forms without losing the essence of the animals.
“Her intent is to communicate her own love and appreciation of nature and outdoors and these creatures,” he says.
She works today in Lander, Wyo. in a studio near the foundry that casts her bronzes, with studios also in Ontario, Canada, and in northern Colorado. An avid outdoorswoman who loves to hunt and fish, she’s made 16 trips to Alaska as well as Europe, Russia, China and South America.
It’s that kind of dedicated field work that lends authenticity to her art.
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Credits:
Sandy Scott, Mallard Duet, 1985. Bronze, 25 × 30 1/2 × 22 1/2 inches. In Memory of Jim Scott, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Sandy Scott, Moose Flats, 2012. Bronze, 116 × 151 × 55 inches. Gift of Joy and Tony Greene, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Sandy Scott, Coyote Clipper, 2009. Bronze. 9 x 17 x 6 inches. Private Collection.
Sandy Scott, Wind River Descent, 2011. Bronze. 27 x 28 x 17 inches. Photo Courtesy, Sandy Scott.