EMILY SCOTT PACK
FINE ARTS

Creating, Inspiring and Empowering

story by CINDY REID
photos by PAUL NURNBERG

 

Enter into artist and photographer Emily Scott Pack’s world. It is a place where fine art is created and empowered women thrive. Emily Scott Pack is a classically trained painter and a fine arts portrait photographer. She creates paintings with the encaustic medium and is a boudoir photography specialist and body image activist.
Emily most recently launched The Raw Project, the experience that encourages all women to see themselves for the Real Authentic Women that they are.
She brings her passion and artist’s eye to both her portraiture and fine arts painting. Step into her world at the wonderfully restored Circa 1810 building in Port Royal and you will immediately see how her love of life leads her to create, inspire, and empower through her art.

Alabama to Beaufort
Originally from Lake Martin, Alabama, Emily says the women in her family gave her a start in the arts. She says. “One grandmother taught me to paint, and my other grandmother inspired through her hand painted pottery. I’m lucky, I get it from both sides of the family.” But she says, “I did not grow up thinking I would become an artist. I studied Pre-Med at university, but after a series of events, I was led to an art class in figure drawing. I threw myself into it as a form of therapy. Painting and creating is like medicine to me.”
It was the right fit. “I graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I went on to travel to Thailand where I taught English as a second language. I became involved with the art community and began to teach the encaustic method and exhibited my encaustic works in local galleries. I soon became the Art Director for Cultural Canvas Thailand, a non-profit that creates programs that help women become self-sustainable through art. As much as she loved living internationally, she says “I moved back to the states because my husband proposed! Thanks to his career as a pilot in the USMC we have lived all over. It was wonderful because we love to travel.”
Emily says, “My husband Preston and I have been married 10 years. He served activity duty in the USMC for 13 years and is currently serving as a Marine reservist at Air Station Beaufort. “Preston joined Delta Airlines as a commercial pilot in 2017 giving them the opportunity to make their home in Beaufort. They have two young daughters, Clover who is nearly 7 years old, and Loda who is four and a half. The family found Beaufort as so many others have, almost five years ago via a military posting. “First we were in Japan for 3 years, then spent 3 years in Virginia Beach before being stationed in Beaufort. Emily says, “We bought a house on Cat Island and we absolutely love it here. We love how Beaufort is surrounded by water, the low country vibe and how everyone is so incredibly good-hearted. It’s the perfect place to raise our family. And as a bonus, it very conveniently located between my family in Alabama and my husband’s family in Tennessee. I was very happy to set up shop here.”

Encaustic Art
Encaustic is an artistic medium composed of beeswax, damar resin and pigments.
The term “Encaustic” is often used to describe both the paint itself and the method for using it. Encaustic paint is applied molten to an absorbent surface and then fused, or re-melted, to create a variety of effects.
Encaustic painting was created by the Egyptians in 5 BC, the modern artist Jasper Johns brought this technique back to life in the 1960’s and today artists all over the world use this method.
Emily says, “The medium is malleable and pliable, which are incredible qualities for a painting, and it dries instantly so you can continue to add layers in a short amount of time. I have always done both photography and painting and often incorporate them together. Encaustic Photography beautifully blurs the lines between photography and painting; melding together what the camera captures with the vision of what the artist sees. Creating encaustic photography helps me to tell a story, to share an emotion, and to transport you to a different place.”
She has had multiple art shows since relocating to Beaufort. Her work can currently be found at the Gallery inside Emily Scott Pack Studios, 610 Paris Ave, Port Royal and also on exhibit at Art of Beaufort, a gallery located at 719 Bay Street in Beaufort. Emily is also an instructor and will be offering an Intro to Encaustics Workshop at her studio on June 23rd from 1-4 pm. This class will be open to 6 people and all supplies will be included.

Fine Art Boudoir
“Inspiring and empowering women through the Boudoir Experience is my passion and teaching them to love their whole self has become my mission. Women are strong and capable of anything when they have the tools and confidence to believe in themselves. Photography is the tool that allows me to show each person that they are perfectly imperfect regardless of their size, age, body type or skin color. ” She says, “It is a beautiful way to document and preserve who they are and is the strongest movement towards self-love that a woman can create for herself.”
While Emily’s love of boudoir may have begun in Japan, during their tour in Iwakuni, it has now grown from a loving gift to a deployed spouse into a “do it for you” empowering experience that all women deserve to have. The Boudoir Experience is incredible in the fact that it offers a type of therapy for all women to work through their self-confidence and body image issues. She says, “We work through all the negative biases each woman holds within herself about her own body. In the end, each woman learns to love and appreciate her body for all that it has given her and finds new beautiful assets she never realized she had. My photo shoots are designed to help women feel like the stunning, strong, romantic, confident, sensual and beautiful woman that they are on the inside. I love that I get to document women in a way that most others do not have the privilege too. I get to reveal a piece of truth for them and this truth helps transform so many avenues in their lives. It is truly remarkable how the process works and how effective it is in building self-confidence, self-worth, and overall self-love.
As far as having to have the perfect body before a photo shoot she says, “Come in now, the ten pounds you want to lose don’t matter. Take the leap! I call it being ‘Perfectly Imperfect’. Let me show the beauty that already lies within you. And you are literally never too old. The oldest client I have photographed was 69 years old, and she was absolutely stunning and a joy to work with. Everyone needs to experience self-love and start the journey to a better self-confident place no matter what age they are.”

The RAW Project
RAW stands for Real.Authentic.Women. Emily says, “I am working on something new, The Raw Project and Experience. It is essentially a self-love photo shoot without all the glam of ‘doing’ your hair or makeup, no fancy wardrobe, etc. It is just you, me and the camera. It is a really genuine session that encourages women to be their Real Authentic Selves. The Raw Project allows you to be vulnerable and when we are vulnerable we become authentic and that lets us access our beauty from the inside.”
Emily speaks from her personal experience, “Last October I attended Body Image Boot Camp, created by Teri Hofford, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in order to be a facilitator for my own clients and help them heal their body image issues. Beth Olson, another photographer took a photo of me in the pool with wet hair and no makeup. I was horrified by how unpolished I looked. But by day five of the course, I loved the photo because I was able to really see myself and love who I am both inside and out. I ask women, ‘why do you feel you have to hide?’ Authenticity is okay. None of us are perfect. Seeing your ‘raw’ self makes you say ‘I am gorgeous’, ‘I am complete without hair and makeup’, which becomes ‘I can do anything’. I get to empower women through their uniqueness.”
She says clients can combine both the Boudoir and Raw photo experiences. “They balance out nicely if you want the glam luxury and the RAW Portrait, we customize the experience for you to have both.” She says “It’s fun! It’s a little simpler, and the end results will make you feel very different, and empowered, by what you see in yourself.”
Body Image Boot Camp
Emily is busy teaching a six week Body Image Boot Camp program for “women from who want to work on themselves, their self-image, and self-love. Body image is so deeply seeded. We can become mindful and change the script when we truly see how detrimental it is. We can go from deep unhappiness with how we think we should look to a deep appreciation of ourselves.
We get to a healthy “I am strong!” attitude and it is really exciting! “She says the body image movement is gaining momentum and she plans on hosting a women’s weekend retreat at a local beach house in the fall.

Lowcountry Inspiration
Living and working in the lowcountry has been a source of inspiration for Emily.
She says, “I have been in the Circa 1810 building in Port Royal for the past three years and recently did renovations to add more studio space and be able to host workshops for both Encaustics and Photography. The building is beautiful and the porch overlooks Port Royal Sound so we can be outdoors.”
When she is not working Emily says she recharges by “practicing meditation, making smudge, walking my dogs through the marshes on Cat island and being on the boat with my husband and our girls, or at our fish camp in St. Helena, it is our favorite spot! I just love it here in Beaufort, we are so lucky to call this Home.”