Meet the Artist: Mary Scott’s portrait of Vladimir Putin softened with a rose

Hobart artist Mary Scott’s new suite of figurative portrait paintings, on show at Despard Gallery, includes a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was a “handsome young man”.

A PORTRAIT may reveal an aspect of someone, but it cannot show the truth, says artist Mary Scott.

“The truth is too slippery,” says Scott, whose new suite of figurative portrait paintings is being shown as part of a joint exhibition at Despard Gallery in Hobart.

“I don’t think we can hope to reveal the truth [about someone]. We can only reveal something of someone through painting — some small aspect, but it’s not necessarily the truth of anything. It’s not about dishonesty, it’s about the complexity of nature.”

Scott, a graduate of the Canberra School of Art and of the Tasmanian School of Art (Masters and PhD), is interested in the ways people function in social and other environments.

Her exhibition at Despard, with artist Simon Blau, contains 12 of her artworks, including portraits of people she knows and or/admires. One work is a portrait of the Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was a young man.

Mary Scott’s portrait of the Russian President as a young man.

“He was a handsome young man and I find him fascinating. I put the rose there [on his jacket] to soften his nature. He always poses as a he-man figure and I think his gaze is always very challenging. He wants people to look at him and respect him,” Scott says.

Another artwork, Tash, shows a young woman looking directly at the viewer and references mixed heritages.

Tash by Mary Scott.

“My work comes from a gender perspective a lot of the time and I like the gaze to come directly to the viewer. Then there’s this reciprocal thing going on between the painting and the person looking at it,” says Scott, who retired from a long-term teaching role at UTAS in 2016 to work full time as an artist.

“I wanted to focus on my practice. There’s no doubt teaching takes a lot out of you physically and mentally.”

Scott was born in Tasmania, but moved to Canberra with her family for her father’s work. She worked as a curator at the National Gallery of Australia, and in arts and teaching roles across Australia and overseas before returning to Tasmania in 1986 to complete a Masters, and later post doctorate, degree.

Hobart artist Mary Scott.

“From that period on I started to forge my career as a teacher. It’s nice now to focus on my studio work. I’ve always been interested in the human relationship with nature, and humans’ relationships with themselves and their environment, which has a gender theme to it,” she says.

“People have all kinds of amazing personas. It’s about how we perform differently in different situations and that brings up things about how honest we can be about ourselves, and how we come to know ourselves.”

The Mary Scott and Simon Blau exhibition runs until November 18 at Despard Gallery, Hobart