Scott Jacobs Tells Part Two of His Art World Story on a Special Park West Podcast

“Ride Like the Wind,” Scott Jacobs

Two weeks ago, Park West Gallery’s “Behind the Artist” podcast gave you the first half of an extended conversation with the astonishing photorealist Scott Jacobs.

Now, you can listen to the second half of Jacob’s revealing interview with Park West Gallery Director Morris Shapiro in the latest episode of “Behind the Artist.”

You can find Part One here, listen to this new episode on the Park West Podcast page, or download either episode on iTunes or Stitcher.

In part two, Jacobs talks about his techniques, his artistic inspirations, and the horrific motorcycle accident that almost ended his career.

Here are a few excerpts from the episode:

Scott Jacobs on what he’s learned about composition:

I’ve learned that when I’m doing a bottle of wine and the glass, I need to overlap them a little bit. I need to have just the edge broke in that line, so it’s not a glass over to the right and the bottle over to the left and the flower down the middle. I need to kind of work things together, make it look right. So, for some of them, I use a real dramatic angle.

Jacobs taking reference photos for one of his original paintings.

I like photographing the wine pieces outside, with natural light because it makes it super dramatic. I love the way the light filters through a bottle and filters through the glass and you get that refraction on a tablecloth. And that’s the things that I think really make the paintings dramatic.

The finished work

Scott Jacobs on the aftermath of his 2016 motorcycle crash:

They bring me to the hospital. I thought I might’ve broke my back and then I was going to be paralyzed. And they told me, with the extent of the damage to my arm, I didn’t know if I’d ever paint again, which is pretty crazy to think that you could be paralyzed and never paint again. Your life changes in that heartbeat. And here, I’m doing something that I love, motorcycle racing, motorcycle riding, something you love can be so dangerous like that.

Scott Jacobs on the road.

So it changed, and what it changed for me is you start reevaluating your life. You think about what are the most important things. Because when things go so easy in your life, you don’t really think about what could happen until you have that near-death experience.

Scott Jacobs on what it feels like to share a new work of art:

I think as an artist, every time we debut new paintings, they’re our new songs and we’re not sure if the people are going to connect with them or sing along with these new songs that we’ve created, and that’s one of the toughest parts.

“Real Deal,” Scott Jacobs

Even though I’ve been doing this a long, long time, 40 years as a professional artist now, I still get nervous. Even though I know I paint well, I’ve sold paintings for a quarter of a million dollars, which is mind-boggling to me. And that’s a lot of pressure actually on an artist, you know, to sell a painting for that much, because you want to know that the people that bought it made a great decision.

To collect the art of Scott Jacobs, contact our gallery consultants at (800) 521-9654 ext. 4 or sales@parkwestgallery.com.