William Scott CBE RA (15 February 1913 – 28 December 1989) was a prominent abstract painter from Northern Ireland, known for his themes of still life, landscape and female nudes.

In 1924, his family moved to his father's home town of Enniskillen in Northern Ireland where Scott soon began art classes with a local teacher, Kathleen Bridle.

He married fellow student Mary Lucas in May 1937 and soon after they travelled to Italy and France, establishing an art school in Pont-Aven with the painter Geoffrey Nelson.

Around this time, Scott's work moved closer to non-figuration and his first one-man show at the Hanover Gallery in London, which opened in June 1953, included a number of, loosely, abstract paintings.

By 1956, Scott's success as an artist, both nationally and internationally, allowed him to give up full-time teaching, although he would remain interested in, and involved with, art school education for the rest of his life.

In 1966, in recognition of his contribution to the arts, he was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the New Year's Honours List; the investiture took place on 15 March.

The following year, his son James Scott made the film, Every Picture Tells A Story – about the artist's early life – for Channel 4 Television.

I cannot be called non-figurative while I am still interested in the modern magic of space, primitive sex forms, the sensual and the erotic, disconcerting contours, the things of life."