Portrait of a creative space: The studio of Regina Scully

The Studio of Regina Scully. (Photos and collage by: Folwell Dunbar)

I ran into Regina Scully at Odyssey Ball in 2018. I told her how much I admired her work, and then asked if I could shoot her studio. “Absolutely,” she said, “as soon as things slow down…”

Over a year later, I finally made it to her studio. Obviously, things did not slow down fast for Regina Scully.

In 2017, she had a solo exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and she received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant Award. She then had shows at Art on Paper in NYC, Art Miami, the Seattle Art Fair, and Contemporary Istanbul, and she participated in group exhibitions in New Orleans, Houston and New York City. She is currently preparing for a solo show at Octavia Gallery for August and September. Yes, Regina Scully has been extremely busy.

As it turns out, her studio is just down the street from my house in the Bywater. It is a block off St. Claude Avenue next to Jackson Barracks. “My living quarters and studio are in the same space,” said Regina, “so I am able to immerse myself in both and find inspiration in the ways my work and life overlap and merge. My space becomes a sanctuary where I can wander through the environment finding inspiration in books, dolls, orchids, cooking, music, and art. Outside of my space, I like to walk on the nearby levee of the Lower Ninth Ward and watch the boldly-colored ships and barges course through the churning Mississippi River.”

Those bold colors and churning lines can be seen throughout Regina’s studio. According to Scully, “My work is a process of conjuring and excavating landscapes of the imagination, which I call Mindscapes. It is a balance of keeping the original spontaneous marks while also adding layers of paint, sanding some away, and developing certain areas with lots of detail. I tend to work on each painting over months of time and work on a number of pieces at once. I develop a deep relationship with each painting and can remember in detail the time period and the feeling and process of each one I have made.”

Looking for inspiration, conjuring up mindscapes, and developing relationships with her work, Regina Scully is not slowing down any time soon.

Regina Scully is represented by Octavia Art Gallery in New Orleans and Houston and by C24 Gallery in NYC. Her painting Cosmographia, a piece in the NOMA collection, can be seen at the Art of the City exhibition at the Historic New Orleans Collection (520 Royal Street) through October 6, 2019. You can learn more about her and her work at www.reginascully.com.