| Lynn Boggess: |
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| Concrete
is the term I most often use in explaining what I am attempting to
accomplish in my landscape paintings. It refers to several things, the
first of which is the process of working exclusively from life (on
location, or pleine-aire). Many difficulties arise from basing a
studio out-of-doors, but they are superseded by the results of working
directly from nature. The elements of light, vapor, liquid and matter in
the visible world are constantly in transition. The challenge for a
pleine-aire painter is to document those transitions into a static,
material form that communicates the sense of a dynamic reality (concreteness)
we associate with experiences in nature.
Concrete also refers to the way I use paint. I paint in thick oil paint, and in a characteristically rapid manner using cement rowels and painting knives. A combination of a heavily layered, material surface and a gestural execution is meant to establish within the work a sense of presence (concreteness), integrity and empathy. The use of a trowel not only accentuates the inherent plastic properties of oil paint and accelerates the process, but introduces an element of unpredictability into the patterns and textures it creates – something brushes tend to eliminate. It is this tension between the rational and irrational, the controllable and uncontrollable characteristics of painting which compels me to paint. It is also what I am trying to communicate as relevant and real in the wilderness of the landscape subjects I depict. |