Scott practices an approach to plein air painting that centers around the “prismatic palette,” a color theory with roots in fin de siecle France. He studied with Joseph Paquet in St. Paul, who had trained under John Phillip Osborne at the Ridgewood Art Institute in New Jersey. Osborne’s philosophy came from his training with Arthur Maynard, who learned under Frank Vincent Dumond, a renowned artist/teacher at the Art Students League in New York. Dumond had studied in the classical tradition at the Academie Julian in France, and was influenced by the new Impressionist ideas regarding color and light. Upon returning to America, Dumond taught in Old Lyme, Connecticut, which became a magnet for American landscape painters.
His paintings are impressionistic in that they describe the unique character of a particular day’s weather and light, and realistic in their desire to show the world as it is. Scott is also known for his paintings of everyday life, from the Bridge Project series in 2008 to his paintings of his neighborhood, where he finds beauty and unique stories to tell through his paintings.