The gaps engineer breathing spaces in the painting that encourage an additional dialogue within and around the work. Whilst the three-dimensional planes of the plates engender an alternative viewpoint, the ceramic forms deliver shadows and highlights creating intriguing faceted elements that change with the light. Embracing the Japanese concept of Ma, where each negative space is as valuable as the positive, each void adds meaning, balance and rhythm to the painting.

The concept for the painting is developed and then the lengthy process of sourcing the exact combination of antique ceramics to build the platescape is commenced. It is not only the shape and size that matters, but also the clay, the age, wear and marks.  Decoration, colour and subject are also key, as all contribute to the success of the composition. Each element is well researched before the final painting is planned.

The language of the old cloth is harnessed to enhance the pictorial narrative. By using the characteristics of antique material as a canvas, it becomes a contributing value to the work. The ancient hand woven cloth, with its attractive vagaries of the hand made process, is extolled in each celebration of the selvedge, hem, join or seam. Antique embroidery, cutwork and lace are employed in some paintings, where this extra attribute is appropriate and prized.

The pattern on the original plates is fundamental to the concept behind the work. Whether traditional bucolic scenes in Toile de Jouy style or massed florals, the aim is to guide the subject matter and enhance the final composition. From a distance the overall effect is harmonious, but on close inspection the miniature details are revealed. The manipulation of scale adds further depth to the engagement.

Creating art with a multi-layered ambition has always been a preoccupation. In 'Breathing Space' I have found a challenging format that embraces my passion for both painting and form.  The platescapes add a 3D perspective that bridges the gap between painting and sculpture.

Blue Vase

An original still life oil painting on a collection of 7 pieces of antique china.  The painting features preserved eucalyptus leaves and dried craspedia flowers in a blue vase with an orange and lemon, becomes disjointed and yet enhanced, as the narrative is rewritten in the breathing spaces.

Materials:

Ceramics

7 pieces of antique crockery

• Pair of antique Booths tureen plates in the Princess pattern. Semi porcelain Rd. 183173. 
• Victorian tureen plate no.186329
• Antique tureen semi-porcelain plate no.345664
• Booths 1906 moon side plate in Lowestoft Border design
• 1886 saucer Pre Shelley Old Foley Rd. no. 49676 (3645)
• Victorian Childs doll house plate with willow pattern

Cloth

Old linen tea cloth - hem used to suggest a frame

Paints

Michael Harding UK: professional hand made, ethical oil paints.

Hanging
Each part of the painting is supplied with a plate hanger.

A life size plan, showing the exact location for hanging each composite piece, is provided.

Dimensions of composite painting: height 63cm x width 56cm

Fishing

An original oil painting on a collection of 4 pieces of vintage china.  The painting features freshwater fish swimming in a golden pool of light where the breathing spaces add another layer of disjuncture. The narrative is enhanced with the bucolic scenes of fishermen on the vintage plates.

This artwork was launched at The Gallery, 23 Lees Yard, Holt NR25 6HS in the Fired Earth exhibition 31st October – 10th November 2026.

Materials:

Ceramics

4 pieces of vintage crockery

• 1930-40 Royal Doulton 'Norfolk' dinner plate
• 1950-60 Crown Ducal 'Bridge Scenes' dinner plate
• Vintage Alfred Meakin 'Queens Castle' oval serving platter 
• Vintage dinner plate

Cloth

1800s French peasant flax cloth - grown, spun and hand woven by rural folk - hand stitched hem used to suggest a frame

Paints

Michael Harding UK: professional hand made, ethical oil paints.

Hanging
Each part of the painting is supplied with a plate hanger.  A life size plan, showing the exact location for hanging each composite piece, is provided.

Dimensions of composite painting: height 71cm x width 61cm

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Oil Painting

Jac Scott

A friend recently asked me if I ever get bored painting the coast? My reply came easily - the coastline is always changing, in every second it metamorphoses. Aiming and failing to capture that energy or tranquility is so bewitching that I'll never master it or tire of trying to do so.

Painting the Norfolk Coast

The elements of sky, sea and shore dance and shift continually. It's the movement and the interplay of the elements that is beguiling. Standing before the ocean and absorbing the sights, sounds and smells to carry home to the studio, is both humbling and invigorating. I find making short videos of the panorama can help the journey, but nothing matches the initial excitement of the moment. Doing quick sketches and colour studies are an intrinsic part of the process. The large scale I prefer to work at demands a big set up, so it is highly problematic working on location.

Painting Simple Compositions with Complicated Layers

The compositions are rudimentary - I really like that. Capturing the viewer's eye without an obvious focal point demands other elements of interest and nuance. Colour and texture are key.  The process is dynamic. It makes it even more challenging to carry that simplicity and create a picture that has depth, movement and spirit. The techniques I use embraces this - nurturing the notion of shifting layers. Visualising and then building the layers is a multi-pronged operation where understanding three-dimensions is critical. One is building from the back of the painting and seeing forward - therefore planning is key.

Each element is faceted like colours - their translucency or opaqueness is important to exploit the medium's variables. Subject matter such as skies and seas envelop the multi-layered approach and react well to embracing different strengths of coloured layers.

Emotional Painting

Yes the paintings are emotional expressions, not copies of anything stagnant.  I want them to be transitional - to carry one to another place - to form a ticket to ride. Painting requires concentration and control, and yet however much you master the materials, there is always an element of serendipity that I love. That unexpected joy or horror that emerges when you think it's safe. This duality of agony and ecstasy whilst painting becomes a canvas full of problems to solve and I am elated if I manage to master them. Such an absorbing activity is demanding both mentally and physically, especially when I work on the big panels. The width and longevity of my art practice definitely informs my painting. It has nuances towards sculpture - planning in three dimensions, layering and cutting back.

Moving to North Norfolk

I grew up by the sea and regularly spent hours watching the waves, never thinking that those early memories would guide my focus now. When we moved from Bournemouth to the Lake District I was still needing to regularly visit the coast and share the big skies away from the brooding mountains. Moving to North Norfolk was liberating - it is a special place: a sanctuary and a stimulus for my spirit and my art practice. We had visited for seven years before we decided to move permanently - it was the best thing we ever did.

Materials of My Mother Tongue - Painting with Oil & Wax

Simple imagery with a strong graphic quality draws me in. Rhythmic bands of interest broken with a vertical focal point is visual poetry to my eyes. The striping delineates and dissects the panorama. Whether wide or sinuous - it’s the dynamic of the sections that is exciting. It is the balance and harmony versus the abrasion of colours and textures that is engaging. I see the challenge as an artist, is how to make such basic inspiration intriguing - to translate the joy into something tangible through media. A lifetime of layering different materials to build and excavate has led to multiple approaches. The current fascination with pigment and wax has evolved over many years of experimenting to source a painting medium that embraced all that I needed to execute the energies within. In these natural materials I have found a voice that speaks my mother tongue.

Artist's Research

I am seeking to create on the canvas, an almost reincarnation of a fleeting moment that requires an enveloping of the elements at the site. Whether a tranquil haven or a dramatic storm the immersion is aided with research: sketches, colour studies and photographic details. But the process of absorption, reflection and creation is so full of energy and dynamic interactions, between myself and the medium, that I find the best way to record my inspiration is by filming the subject matter. Just by taking video clips, the essence of a place is better transported to my studio, than through stills that freeze the energy I wish to evoke. Whilst, wishing to paint on site seems attractive, my chosen medium is very limited, as intense heat and power are critical.

Artist's Materials & Process

In the studio it is a juggling act of controlling hot and cold - an alchemy of materials and old techniques mixed with new technologies. The materials are natural: pigments and bees wax, mixed with dammar resin to set the strokes. These are brushed, knifed, poured and rubbed onto specially sealed wooden boards, then layered and fused, layered and fused and repeated. The rhythm is broken by incising, texturising and sgraffito. The process is reactive with a strong element of serendipity tempered by intuition. I embrace the challenge and realise it will take more than a lifetime to hone any skill set.

Encaustic Painting

The heated palettes provide softened creamy molten colour in tins waiting to be saturated with pigment or thinned and translucent. Mixing colours and different quantities of wax opens up endless possibilities for saturation and washes. The range of hand tools  employed is vast from fine dental steel implements to large chunky brushes made of wood and natural animal hair.

Wax and pigments are fused with heat, which dries quickly, capturing brush strokes, drips and textures. Encaustic art is an all consuming very physical practice.  One is seduced by the process of not just applying paint with a brush, palette knife or hands but also the harnessing of heat to energise materials and move the liquids around. The fluidity of the process allows the materials to mix and metamorphose.

Encaustic Painting - an Ancient Art

There are examples of this ancient art, practiced by the Greeks and the Egyptians, from 2000 years ago. The British Museum has examples of portraits from 100-300 AD. The Fayum encaustic pictures are still vibrant, providing an amazing historical testament to the longevity of the medium. Painted as part of the mummy casing, the deceased’s portrait was depicted fully dressed with a background around the head. A visit to see these in the flesh is at the top of my list for my next research trip to London.

Fluid Lands

All artworks in this collection are originals by Jac Scott.

Utopia do not create prints from these paintings.

Encaustic Art

The ancient method of encaustic art was practiced by the Greeks and Egyptians with 2000 year old examples still in existence. Wax and pigments are fused with heat which dries quickly capturing brush strokes, drips and textures. Encaustic art is an all consuming very physical practice.  One is seduced by the process of not just applying paint with a brush, palette knife or hands but also the harnessing of heat to energise materials and move the liquids around. The fluidity of the process allows the materials to mix and metamorphose.

Artist’s Inspiration

The collection is a narrative from the Covid-19 lockdown where the staying home mantra led to a visceral response in oil paint and wax, to places long remembered.  No longer able to embrace the wide vistas of the Norfolk sea and land scapes, that the artist’s spirit yearned to revisit, she decided to indulge in some highly emotive abstracted work that would kindle a long repressed flame.