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Paint like your inner prep with Alex Scott-Douglas

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The Nugget
November 21, 2025

★ Paint like your inner prep with Alex Scott-Douglas ★

Alex Scott-Douglas

MainFM's Marty Sharples was paying his bill at Nem Viet when someone behind the counter called out “Mark??“

“It’s Marty” he laughed and that tiny moment cracked open a whole shared history.

Artist Alex Scott-Douglas wants everyone to paint with the freedom of a Prep kid who hasn’t discovered self-consciousness. 

“I am a true believer of everybody can make art,” she says.

“It’s usually been pushed out of us.”

Her plan is to lure you back in with wine and zero pressure. Alex is hosting two Paint & Sip nights at Boomtown (Tues 25 Nov and Tues 9 Dec).

There will be a big still life down the centre of the table for inspo. Flowers, fruit and glass bottles.

If that sounds as terrifying to you as it does to me, fear not. There is instruction!

Alex teaches Impressionist techniques to local primary school kids (stippling, hatching, dry-brushing) and Paint & Sip adults will get the same toolkit.

“It’s about learning how to build with the paint,” she says.

“Last time, some people drew the water jars or the paintbrushes or went super abstract, which is ace.”

She doesn’t care what you make — truly.

“It doesn’t matter what the outcome is. Just do something and be in the process of it.”

If you’ve seen Alex’s own work around town, the theme checks out. She's up for a challenge and in Alex's case the outcome is generally outstanding.

She’s the co-mastermind behind the Town Folk Festival’s psychedelic love monster of an arbour.

“Putting it together is basically having a massive play,” she says.

“I really like being up a ladder.”

She also did the OG Town Folk branding, designs the Minim Wine labels and has exhibited at Corner Store Merchants. If it sits still in Castlemaine long enough, she’ll probably paint it (like the original art deco light out the front of Bar Midland).

And then there’s the music. Alex grew up playing saxophone and opera, then moved to town and instantly fell into musical cahoots with Felicity Cripps. 

“My favourite thing is harmony singing,” she says. “I’ve always adored riffing off somebody else’s work.”

They were invited to join Don Walker (of Cold Chisel) on his recent tour, which she describes as “unreal.

“I couldn’t be happier to have had that experience.”

She also has a superpower that makes her Paint & Sip sessions work. It comes from teaching art to kids. She’s watched them create without hesitation, without performing, without checking if someone else is “better.”

“If I could bottle what the Preps and Grade Ones have…” she says.

By the older years, comparisons creep in and Alex spends a lot of time trying to undo that. Adults are even worse.

“Paint’s pretty intimidating for a lot of people.”

But if you can push past the discomfort, something shifts.

“No one is judging,” she says. “They’re so focused on their own thing.”

Alex's first teaching placement brought her to Castlemaine 11 years ago she hasn't looked back.

"This town has been instrumental in me being able to follow all these threads and use all these skills because we can do that here."

Her next big project is an exhibition at Caspa Gallery in May. But right now, she’s gearing up for those Boomtown nights and prepping for collective artistic mischief.

“What I’m trying to get through to people with Paint and Sip is just put the paint on the page,” she says. “See what happens.”

  • Buy tickets to Paint and Sip at Boomtown

  • Listen to our interview with Alex on MainFM

  • Buy one of Alex’s prints

❀ Tiny art, big joy ❀

I. Love. Smalls.

The kind of pieces you can hang beside the kettle or gift to a special someone who will definitely melt over a perfect little painting.

Lot 19 is hosting an inaugural Salon of Smalls just in time for Christmas, and they want your work in the mix.

The brief? Tiny, tasty, under-30-by-30 artworks with a price cap of $300.

If you’ve been hiding small delights in your “finish later” pile, this is your moment.

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