Great Scott, it's North or Bust in Whangārei

Robert Scott, brining his North or Bust attitude to Whangārei

Think of bands The Clean and The Bats, and Robert Scott is right there in the middle. He played bass for The Clean and guitar/vocals for The Bats, and wrote songs for both. Scott has also released solo albums in several genres, including alternative rock, experimental instrumentals and traditional folk music. As he paints images in words and music, so too do his artworks capture scenes of the worldly, unworldly and sometimes transient. Later this month he brings both sides of his art to Whangārei, writes artist, critic and gallery owner Megan Corbett.

Born in 1960 in Dunedin, Scott grew up in East Taieri, near Mosgiel, in a family of four children.

There were early stints living in Dunedin and Christchurch before he moved to Port Chalmers in 1995. There he found a community of like minded artists where creative practice moves across several disciplines, sound and visual art.

Scott's lengthy musical career began as the bassist for the acclaimed group the Clean, and also as a founding member of the legendary Bats.

Scott, David Kilgour and Hamish Kilgour (the Clean) were inducted into the New Zealand music hall of fame in 2018.

The musical talent runs deep in the Scott family. His daughter Brydie recently performed live with Superorganism on Conan NYC.

Art and music were intertwined within the ''Dunedin sound'' movement. All the members of the Clean are longstanding practicing visual artists.

The Clean - David and Hamish Kilgour (left and right) and Robert Scott (centre).

Paul Kean, bassist for the Bats, describes Scott as a prolific song writer, who works hard, takes his paintings on tour in support of the merchandising table at gigs and has sold art all over the globe!

The visual work compliments the amazing music that Scott has steadily and successfully produced for many years.

He is not typical.

There is a sense that he is conversing with you with his song craft so well developed. Its genesis is at the fruition of Dunedin sound, in the late 70s.

The Deep Set, the latest offering of The Bats, displays Scott's art work on the cover.

A must listen for those lost in the transient worlds. Images created in the music coincide with the paintings; Scott the lyricist and guitarist.

Although he studied at art school, he chose a bard's life, but came back to visual art with a vengeance in the mid 90s.

His paintings identify with the Otago landscape. He engages with various ideas in the landscape, moa, spacemen, dinosaurs or lone farmers placed in surreal scenes.

Garbols Head East, by Robert Scott

Scott takes a folk art approach, sometimes mixed with science fiction or "what if" scenarios, finely rendered in acrylic on board, his palette bright.

The DIY aesthetic runs strong, materials are resourced, second hand, reclaimed, re-appropriated, and fittingly utilised as substrate for the finished article.

There is an element of New Zealand gothic in the visual idea. There is a sense of time and place within the work, invested with witty commentary.

The painterly approach captures the deep South landscape with a steady observational reference to seasons' change, and some of the more idiosyncratic southern moments.

Scott's sense of time unravels as we look through his mind's eye at strange four legged beasts racing across his path on Garbols Head East or an Otago plains overview where you can almost smell the cut hay.

He follows the path of seasons, a southern man identifying with his surrounds, and the amazing creative culture of the Otago district.

Scott is of the ilk that has struck a chord with so many, inspired responses from the broader culture of New Zealand - in music, art, and style. By osmosis alone we get inspiration.

❏ Here is an opportunity for the curious: North or Bust, Robert Scott's solo painting exhibition opens at Hangar Gallery October 26, preview 5.30 -7.30pm, followed by his solo acoustic gig "Songs from the back catalogue'', at Oneonesix, 116 Bank St, 8pm, $20 ticket at Hangar Gallery.