Tucked along Canal Road in Orange Beach, the Pink Pelican Art Gallery has become a destination for locals and visitors who want coastal art with a sense of humor and a lot of variety. The gallery represents dozens of local and regional artists, hosts a monthly gathering called Wine Down Wednesday, and is owned by an artist whose own story takes a few unexpected turns, from nursing to painting on the back deck of a yacht to writing a series of Fairhope romance novels under a pen name.
Tamara Scott, the painter who owns Pink Pelican, shared her path in a May 2025 profile. Friends of the gallery describe it simply: a great gallery run by great people. Here is a closer look at the artist, the gallery and the monthly event that keeps people coming back.
A Painter From the Start
Scott grew up south of Detroit, Michigan, and has painted for as long as she can remember. “Even as a child, I was on the kitchen floor, finger painting on poster board,” she said.
Her parents encouraged her art, but her father steered her toward a degree that would help her make a living, what he called “a real job.” Scott followed that advice and worked for many years as a nurse. She never stopped painting, though. On the side, she produced commissioned pieces for friends, family and friends of friends, building a following one canvas at a time.
That practical-first, art-always path is a familiar one among working artists. Many painters and craftspeople on the Gulf Coast came to their studios after first careers in health care, education, the military or business, and that breadth of life experience is part of what gives the regional art scene its character.
Nursing eventually took Scott to Indianapolis, where she met her husband, Tony. Tony Scott grew up in Mobile and has spent many years in the disaster insurance adjustment business, first with Pilot Catastrophe Services, then Southeast Disaster Recovery Services, before joining Davies Group. He is now vice president of operations for Frontier Adjusters.
Finding a Fairhope Palette
For Scott, the move south was an easy decision. “Moving from Indianapolis to Alabama was easy. I didn’t want to do any more Northern winters, so we moved to Tony’s home base,” she said. “Many of the people Tony knew or went to school with lived on the Eastern Shore, which was perfect because I wanted to live in Fairhope.”
Breaking into the local art scene took some adjustment. “It was difficult to enter the art scene at first. I was told I had a Northern color palette and needed a Fairhope color palette. I made a few adjustments.”
Anyone who has spent time on the Eastern Shore understands the comment. Fairhope has long been one of Alabama’s most art-centered small cities, with a downtown filled with galleries and studios, the Eastern Shore Art Center, a monthly First Friday Art Walk, and the long-running Arts & Crafts Festival that draws crowds each March. The light over Mobile Bay, the sunsets off the municipal pier, the live oaks and the bright flowers that line downtown streets all push local artists toward a softer, warmer, sun-washed palette than the grays and deep tones common farther north.
After moving to Alabama, Scott sold her first paintings to the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, the historic resort on Mobile Bay that has been a landmark of the Eastern Shore since the nineteenth century.
Painting on a Hatteras at The Wharf
Before settling in Fairhope, the Scotts lived on the water aboard a 72-foot Hatteras motor yacht docked at The Wharf in Orange Beach. Scott painted on the back deck and on the dock, and occasionally borrowed a friend’s barn when she needed room for large works.
Her art has continued to evolve. Lately, her focus has been on clay florals. “Hand-built clay flowers on canvas are popular, but I still love painting sailboats, beach themes, and very coastal works,” she said. The dimensional florals combine sculpture and painting, giving a canvas texture and shadow that change with the light in a room.
Inside the Pink Pelican Art Gallery
At the time of the 2025 profile, Pink Pelican Art Gallery represented 48 local and regional artists working in a wide range of media, including watercolor, oils, sculpture and jewelry.
“We are a fine art gallery, with a great variety of work, and no artist is doing the same thing,” Scott said. “We are unique, whimsical, with new artwork and artists coming in monthly. We host a monthly event to advertise the artists and the gallery.”
That rotating mix is one of the advantages of a multi-artist gallery. Rather than showing a single artist’s body of work, a gallery like Pink Pelican can offer a buyer everything from a small piece of handmade jewelry to a large statement painting, at a range of price points, all made by people who live and work in the region. For the artists, gallery representation provides a professional retail space, foot traffic from a busy tourist corridor, and the kind of exposure that is hard to generate alone.
Orange Beach is an especially good location for that kind of exposure. The city’s Canal Road corridor connects the beach communities with the marinas, restaurants and attractions around Perdido Pass and The Wharf, and millions of visitors pass through the Alabama Gulf Coast each year. Many are looking for a piece of the coast to take home, whether that means a painting of a sailboat, a pelican or a sunset over the water.
The city itself has invested in the arts as well. Orange Beach operates the Coastal Arts Center of Orange Beach on Wharf Parkway, known for its hot glass studio and classes, and the community hosts art festivals and public art throughout the year. Private galleries like Pink Pelican round out that scene, giving residents and visitors more places to discover the artists who call the coast home and to take a piece of that creativity back with them.
Wine Down Wednesday: A Monthly Art Night
The gallery’s signature event is Wine Down Wednesday, generally held on the last Wednesday of each month. The gallery promoted a Wine Down Wednesday on May 28, 2025, from 5 to 8 p.m.
“It’s our version of an Art Walk, but we are more of a destination,” Scott said. “We cater to the local community, and have make-and-take or ‘live’ paintings at the events. We offer beer, wine, and bubbles to sip, have occasional pop-ups, and just have a good time!”
Art walks have become a fixture across the region, from Fairhope’s First Friday to monthly events in downtown Mobile and Pensacola. They lower the barrier to walking into a gallery, turning what can feel like a quiet, formal space into a social evening. Pink Pelican’s version adds hands-on activities, letting guests try a make-and-take project or watch an artist working live, which can be a good introduction for people who have never bought original art before.
Because schedules can change, anyone planning to attend a future Wine Down Wednesday should check with the gallery for the current date and details.
The Novelist Behind the Easel
Scott has another creative outlet that many of her customers may not know about. When she first moved to Fairhope, she did not know many people and often went out to lunch alone.
“I couldn’t help but overhear conversations taking place around me. I decided to write a romance novel on things I heard, and changed the names to protect the innocent,” she said. “They became pretty popular, and I’ve had a few fun book signings at Page & Palette. People are always asking who the characters are based on, but I’ll never tell!”
Page & Palette, the independent bookstore on De La Mare Avenue in downtown Fairhope, is one of the oldest family-owned bookstores in the region and a regular stop on author tours, making it a natural place for a local writer’s signings.
Scott writes under the pen name Ansley Prescott, in case her mother picks up one of the books. “They are good beach reads with a good amount of spice,” she said. At the time of the profile, she had seven published books, five of them in the Forever Fairhope romance series. She has also written for Splash, a high-end magazine based in Perdido Key.
Planning a Visit
- Location: Pink Pelican Art Gallery is at 24823 Canal Road in Orange Beach.
- What you’ll find: Work by local and regional artists in watercolor, oils, sculpture, jewelry and mixed media, including Scott’s own clay florals and coastal paintings.
- Monthly event: Wine Down Wednesday, usually on the last Wednesday of the month; confirm dates and times with the gallery before you go.
- Make a day of it: Canal Road puts the gallery close to Orange Beach’s marinas, waterfront restaurants and The Wharf.
Whether you are shopping for a coastal painting, hunting for a one-of-a-kind gift or just looking for a relaxed midweek evening with a glass of wine, Pink Pelican offers a welcoming introduction to the artists of the Alabama Gulf Coast. And if you get the chance, say hello to Tamara Scott, the nurse-turned-painter-turned-novelist who keeps the whole thing colorful.