Dan's Cover Artist Scott Bluedorn Talks 'Phantom Beach'

The April 5, 2024 cover of Dan’s Papers features “Phantom Beach,” a 2021 acrylic painting on wood panel by well-known Sag Harbor artist Scott Bluedorn. Here, he discusses the beautiful painting’s eerie inspiration, his evolution as an artist and projects that fans of his work can look forward to this summer.

A Conversation with Scott Bluedorn

What inspired you to create your “Phantom Beach” artwork in 2021?

This painting depicts the large ship platform that was active off of Beach Lane, Wainscott in 2020 working on the wind farm cable that was coming ashore there. It was quite an impressive and somewhat ominous thing to see in the ocean there, and it reminded me of an alien craft of some kind. I wanted to paint the scene as a more interesting take on a cliche sunset beachscape.

What did your process to create “Phantom Beach” entail, and how did you determine when the painting was finished?

I worked from a few different photographs I had taken, and a smaller study I did to work out the sunset hues and the relative size of the ship. I rarely do studies, but this one needed it to determine what I wanted to convey. The painting is done when the elements feel balanced.

What’s one way in which your painting style or broader artistic focus has evolved since 2021?

I am constantly evolving stylistically and experimenting with different mediums in my work. Everything I do is a starting point and leads to something else, but thematically my work is always about human interaction with the natural, non-human environment. How I convey that theme is always shifting lenses.

What do you find most rewarding about being a multimedia artist?

Media is the most exciting thing to work with for me. I would say I am primarily a painter and drawer, but I use these disciplines as a way to interpret other mediums like collage, printmaking, assemblage, sculpture or installation. Working with a new medium, like ceramic, is humbling yet rewarding when I do something unexpected or unorthodox with it.

What is one artistic goal that you hope to accomplish this summer or this year?

I hope to have a cohesive body of work finished that focuses on storms, climate-related destruction and natural beauty and power, which I will be exhibiting. I also have a number of outdoor sculptures and installations in the works.

Would you like to share any information about your upcoming art exhibitions and projects?

I will have a show at Clinton Academy in East Hampton coming up in May, and I have some sculptures and installations at Sylvester Manor (on Shelter Island), The Leiber Collection (in Springs) and CEED in Brookhaven this summer!

To view more of Scott Bluedorn’s art, visit scottbluedorn.com.