Artist David Boggs

David Boggs, Recessional. Oil on linen, 30” x 60”

With the sky so great a part of any scene here in the Midwest, just as it is in the Netherlands, it seems natural that I draw upon the Dutch landscape tradition of awarding the sky the greater portion of the composition to the point that it becomes the subject of the painting. Many of my paintings set an image of sky and marshland before a viewer and invite the viewer to consider the scenes as special things, as devotionals.

The paintings in this group are typical of my work of the past several years in terms of subject matter and media. This recent work is representational of the subjects I observe as well as the spirituality I maintain.

The pieces speak of humankind’s place in the world, relative to nature, in the sense that the viewer is a participant in the act of seeing embodiments of nature in the works. I ask a viewer to revere nature by appreciating the wonder of these primarily atmospheric scenes. Landscape is largely atmosphere—to me, mostly atmosphere. I see painting landscape as an act of balance, of interpreting a subject that has simultaneity as its basis. That is, it is constant, but never static. It is very steady, but very active; stable, but always in flux. In my paintings, I attempt to deal with that simultaneity—the permanence and transience of landscape.

To learn more about David’s artwork visit circagallery.org.