Watercolor and acrylic on paper 17 x 21 in. Alice Scott Scanland, who painted under the name “Alice Scott,” was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1924. She is best known for her depictions of the American South, especially her figurative and genre paintings of African American subjects, though she also painted still lifes, landscapes and regional scenes of her native South Carolina and her later homes in Pensacola and Tallahassee, Florida. While living in Charleston, Scanland became interested in theater. She was commissioned to paint a group of artworks for the opera Porgy and Bess, that toured with the New York company. Her painting studio was next to the Old Dock Street Theater, where she became an active member of the theater community, taught art classes, and painted the people and sights around Charleston.She took a particular interest in the culture of the Gullah, a group of African Americans descended from enslaved Africans who settled along the southern Atlantic coast, forming a vital part of Charleston’s heritage. While her early compositions in watercolor capture the region’s people and landscapes with subtle nuance, Scanland’s later painted collages, employed more exotic coloration and explored complex themes. After her husband’s job as a Navy officer moved the family to Florida, first to Pensacola, and later to Tallahassee in 1964, Scanland took a sabbatical from painting for a few years in order to raise her son. She began painting again when her son entered school, and enjoyed sketching and painting the historic areas of Tallahassee. She also reignited her interest in the stage and became active with the Tallahassee Little Theater. Alice Scott Scanland died in Tallahassee at the age of 81. She was a member of the LeMoyne Art Foundation, where she exhibited her work. Scanland studied with numerous artists, including the figural painter Robert Brackman (1898-1980), and the sculptor Heinz Warnecke (1895-1983) at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. Sources:Mary Ann Lindley. “Tallahassee Heritage Is Painted,” Tallahassee Democrat, newspaper (Tallahassee, Florida) 02 April 1972, p. 63.Sharon DeMarko. “An Artist Captures The Lure of a Land,” Pensacola News Journal, newspaper (Pensacola, Florida) 30 Jan 1976, p. 37.“Art Is Imagery, History,” Tallahassee Democrat, newspaper (Tallahassee, Florida) 05 Mar 1972, p. 59. Submitted by Laura F. Polucha, Research Associate, Hawthorne Fine Art

Good condition