OBSERVATIONAL WORK · WATERCOLOUR · INK
CIties / From Life
Paintings and drawings made directly from observation in Melbourne and other cities. Working in watercolour and ink, these works focus on atmosphere, architecture, movement and the changing character of urban space.
Made on location or developed from direct studies, the works reduce complex scenes into essential shapes, tones and gestures. Rather than describing the city literally, they record the experience of being there — light, weather, distance, human activity and the incidental details that give a place its character.
This observational practice runs alongside the more constructed imagery of Urban Mythologies, providing a direct visual language that continues to feed into the studio work.
Plein Air
Paintings made directly on location, primarily in watercolour. These works record changing light, weather, architecture and movement through immediate observation, with an emphasis on atmosphere and simplification rather than detailed description.
Ink & Drawing
These works use ink as a direct and economical way of describing the city. Made from observation, they focus on structure, rhythm, contrast and the movement of people through urban space.
Brush marks, broken lines and areas of dense black reduce architecture and street detail into a more graphic visual language. Some works remain immediate studies, while others become more resolved drawings that sit between documentation and interpretation.
The ink work has also become an important part of Scholten’s broader studio practice, providing a vocabulary of line, shape and urban detail that continues to inform both painting and illustration.
