By Rick Morwick
By his own acknowledgment, Randall Scott Harden sees the world through an artist’s eye.
Color is his passion. Expressing it in paint is his art.
“I just enjoy being able to express and re-create what I see onto a canvas, whether it’s outdoors or indoors,” said Scott Harden, a renowned local artist who has plied his Impressionist craft for 35 years. “The re-creation of a scene, translating that to canvas in my own vision, that’s what I enjoy.”
For patrons’ enjoyment, a trove of Scott Harden’s recent work is on display through November in a featured exhibit at Art on Main Gallery & Gifts in Carmel, 111 W Main St., Suite 140.
A Noblesville resident, Scott Harden, 51, spent a month last summer in Italy and France. He taught workshops in both nations but spent much of his time plein air painting countryside landscapes.
In total, he created about 25 on location. All of those pieces are in the special exhibit. He painted another 10 or so pieces in-studio upon his return. They, too, are in the exhibit.
“All of these paintings are the inspiration from this this trip,” said Scott Harden, who spent considerable time in Tuscany in central Italy and Toulouse in southwest France. He also spent 15 days in Paris.
On Nov. 17, Art on Main visitors can meet Scott Harden and learn more about his trip during a special reception between 6 and 9 p.m. He will discuss his art and share his affinity for plein air painting.
“I like it because you’re out there and seeing the real colors,” Scott Harden said. “Also, doing it on location, a lot of times it comes from your soul. You’re recreating it right on location. A lot of times it’s better than a photograph, although I love doing photographs, too.”
When visitors see his work in the special exhibit, Scott Harden said his hope is the viewing experience will, in a sense, transport them to the rolling hills and colorful valleys of Italy and France.
“Hopefully, they will feel a sense of the place where I was painting,” he said. “I did some really nice evening shots of Tuscany. I hope they will take away a feeling of the countryside of France and the countryside of Italy, and hopefully they’ll feel what I felt when I was there.”
For more, visit artonmain.com
