Artist, sculptor, muse, mother, wife. Although she worked in other media, Mary Scott (neé Lucas) is best known for her sculptures, executed in a variety of materials – wax, clay, plaster, wood and stone. She trained at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Academy Schools, where she met her future husband William Scott. Following their wedding in May 1937, Mary and William travelled to Italy and France. In Brittany they established the Pont-Aven School of Painting with fellow artist Geoffrey Nelson, although this was forced to close shortly after opening due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
Mary gave birth to her first child, Robert, in 1940 and a second son, James, the following year. The boys would often feature in her work.
In the 1950s, her work was exhibited at both the Hanover Gallery in London and the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. Despite positive reviews, Mary increasingly gave up on her own work in order to support her husband’s career. It was a time when, as Norbert Lynton has pointed out, ‘professional women artists were still rare.’ (Lynton, William Scott, London, 2004, p. 65).