Scott Burdick was born in Chicago, Illinois, where his mother and father early on encouraged his interest in art. “I spent a lot of time in hospitals as a child and remember my mother showing me how to transform simple shapes like circles, triangles, and squares into objects like planes, helicopters, and fish,” Burdick said. “It seemed such a magical thing and made spending so much time in casts and on crutches much more bearable.”

In high school, Burdick began taking life-drawing classes at the American Academy of Art under the legendary Bill Parks. After finishing the Academy, he continued his study informally with Richard Schmid at the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, where he met his wife, painter Susan Lyon.

Burdick’s ideas for paintings come from everywhere. “What makes a subject attractive to me,” he said, “are the same things that attract us all — the beauty of a young girl, the character of a weathered face, the solitude of a farm at sunset, or even the story itself behind someone or something that makes it interesting.” Winner of the Donald Teague Memorial Award at the 2020  Prix de West, and the Jackie L. Coles Buyers’ Choice Award at the 2015 Prix de West, Burdick and his wife live in a rural area of North Carolina.