Transitional Moments: Lynn Boggess

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ynn Boggess discovers intimate beauty in nature through his expressionistic paintings.

Those who intimately study nature also gain a keen understand of time and its passing. Painter Lynn Boggess is one of them. He has spent most of the last thirty-odd years observing nature, then interpreting it in large canvases covered in thick impastos of paint applied in large “brush” strokes made with a cement trowel. The results are abstracted images of nature grounded in Boggess’s close understanding of the moments of quiet beauty found in minute particulars of the natural, physical world. This summer, for his new exhibition at EVOKE Contemporary, Boggess has created a number of landscapes that sprang from his intimate understanding of nature. When discussing this exhibition this past March, Boggess was in the midst of creating the work at the important moment when snow melts, blossoms form, and winter turns to spring.

“Transitions are always exciting for me,” he said. “You work with one palette for three months, so changing into a new one is very exciting. I mean, I love winter, it’s probably my favorite season—the challenge of it, the contrast of the white background against everything else, the quality of light—but then it turns into spring, and all these other challenges present themselves.

“So, after three months, I’m ready to paint these gorgeous greens, soft pinks, and gentle blossoms that come out in white,” Boggess said. “Crab-apple blossoms are the quintessential spring image, and with my technique I’m able to approximate what the blossoms actually are: the size of the blossom, the physical sculptural structure of them.

Opposite: Lynn Boggess painting on location. Above: Lynn Boggess, 19 June 2021, oil on canvas, 34” × 30”.

I take all that and put it into oil paint at a scale of one to one. And when you’re painting thick, like I do, they pop right off the canvas.”

What is most compelling for Boggess at this moment of his career is the capture of movement. In this challenge, Boggess also has discovered his true calling—the need to paint expressively rather than decoratively.

“More exciting than painting blossoms is painting movement,” Boggess said. “The wind through the trees, the wind blowing those blossoms, and the leaves turning with the wind. Also, you have blowing snow—the wind is always blowing. And this volatile weather is what compels me. “When you’re painting a scene, you get the deep space going, volume and recessional space,” he continued. “It’s pretty up-front and direct, expressionistic and abstract, and that is always exciting to work with. Blossoms can be a little formulaic, but expressiveness is the antithesis of decorative. What I try to do is overcome that decorative trap—getting the feeling of the wind sweeping through the trees, branches swaying, leaves turning and twisting. It’s all such an interesting subject.”

In his years of painting landscapes, Boggess has discovered the best surprises in painting common rather than monumental subjects.

“Like all plein air, one’s subjects don’t have to be monumental, panoramic views or breathtaking views,” he said. “When you’re out there in nature, you can spend a whole day looking at one tree. And that’s what fascinated me— different light, different distances. A little shrub in the back yard can provide a painting subject for years.”

Large or small, the key to what inspires Lynn Boggess’s work is his experience of the natural world up close—the purity of that connection, and the enduring influence of the natural world on our daily lives. As he once said, “We define spirituality through the physical world.”

—Joshua Rose

Opposite: Lynn Boggess, 2 November 2020, oil on canvas, 28” × 52”. Above: Lynn Boggess, Night Scene, oil on canvas, 46” × 40”.