Drew Scarpa Fine Art

Artist Statement

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My work is rooted in direct experience with the landscape—particularly water, shoreline, and open land. Living and working in rural South Jersey, and spending extensive time on the water, I’m immersed in environments that change subtly but constantly with light, weather, and time. These moments are not dramatic spectacles, but quiet occurrences—simply happening.

I work primarily in pastel because of it's immediacy and physicality. The medium allows me to build surfaces through rubbing, layering, smudging, and scraping—letting one color breathe through another. Rather than describing forms with outline, I construct space through mass and atmosphere, reflecting how nature is perceived rather than diagrammed.

Each piece begins with an image carried from memory—drawn from travel, sketches, and observation—but the work develops intuitively across the entire surface. I avoid detail in favor of suggestion, allowing the material itself to create the illusion of light on water, wind through grasses, or the warmth of late afternoon sun. Control is present, but never absolute; the natural behavior of the pastel plays an essential role in the final image.

Ultimately, the work is less about a specific location than about presence—capturing the essence of a moment as it passes. As Fairfield Porter observed, “Subject matter must be normal in the sense that it does not appear sought after so much as simply happening.” That sensibility guides my approach: restrained, observational, and grounded in lived experience.

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