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Reviews Two years ago, he decided that 30 years in teaching was enough and left to become a full-time artist, since when his work has been in demand not only in Britain, but as far away as France, Eire and the United States. Helen Brown found out about putting Joie de Vivre (the joy of living) on canvas.
He explained, “I’ve had solo shows before, but nothing as big as this—it’s probably been in the pipeline about a year. “If there’s a theme, it’s variety. I suppose I’m known for expressionist landscape prints particularly, but they’re not the only thing I ever do so I got going on big still lives and florals as well, and one or two beach scenes created in homage to Alberto Morrocco. “I was always inspired by his beach scenes—he was my tutor at one point—and although I did paint figuratively earlier in my career, it was good to come back to the concept of that in tandem with the abstraction that I love. “There’s a series entitled Morrocco Beach and someone actually asked me whereabouts in Morocco this beach was! I had to explain that they were done as acknowledgements of Alberto rather than depictions of places!” Although he continues to paint from his home on the north-east coast, Francis has also recently taken over a studio in Aberdeen where he can create much bigger works. “It’s definitely had an effect on my work—you can see some paintings that are much bigger and free-er. In fact, I don’t think I could have done this show without this space to paint in.” Dundee-born and trained at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, where Morrocco and David McClure were amongst his strongest influences, he eventually became head of art at Aberdeen Grammar School and during the 1990s, his richly textured and visually striking work began to become well known and much in demand. He credits his move to the north east coast with driving the change in his work that has inspired his painting in recent years. Although he has exhibited regularly over the decades, it took an artistic and an academic challenge—a major commission for the John Lewis group and the decision to study for a Master’s degree—to cement his decision to change direction. “Taking the year out to do the Masters was a bit of an experiment to see how I would survive. The deal was that I would go back to teaching afterwards so I did a year, followed by a period of job-sharing and then decided to make the jump. “I was finding by that stage that the demand for pictures was becoming impossible to fulfil part-time so that was the final catalyst.” As a teacher for so many years, he remains interested in explaining and demonstrating to people, particularly via his website, how and why his paintings are created. “There’s a lot of educational info there about how the work is done and what the thinking behind it is. “Recently, I was contacted by a doctor in Worcester whose daughter was studying my work for A-level. He said that she would be thrilled if I sent her one of my cards for her 18th birthday and I was delighted to do that. Having taught, it was quite a thought that I was now being taught in schools—she apparently did very well and is now on an art course. “This family had also given their daughter one of my paintings as a present and someone had created a cake decorated with that picture, which was of a Speyside church. I was amazed by that, but they sent a picture and it was a wonderful cake. “I never thought I would be immortalised in icing sugar—I’ve heard of chocolate box painters, but I didn’t suspect I would inspire a range of confectionery!” An article he wrote for International Artist magazine led to a higher profile in America in particular and an exhibition in Seattle and he has also shown successfully at the Bridge Gallery in Dublin, where his next show, after this one, will be held. In spite of increased international exposure, his love of the Scottish scene remains at the heart of his artistic vision and he has strong views about the attraction of this view of Scotland to potential visitors. “I sometimes feel I should work for the Scottish Tourist Board because I know how beautiful Scotland is and, at the moment, I think our art is a great advert. But it’s not used enough to get over to people. The image of the place used to be Sir Walter Scott, the land of deer etc, but the use of colour amongst modern Scottish artists is making a new statement that people all over the world enjoy and relate to. “Think what the Impressionists did for France!” His work has recently been shown in Paris, a long-held ambition that also co-incided with his and his wife’s 20th wedding anniversary visit to the city. “It was great because the gallery was a stone’s throw from the Louvre and not far from the artists’ quarter where many artistic heroes lived and worked. The style there is to put the exhibiting artist’s name on the window—it was like having my name in lights. “I was delighted because it tends to be that no country takes particularly well to foreign artists. Funnily enough, one of the pictures in the gallery window, of a north-east scene, was sold to a Scot from the Aberdeen area now living and working in France.” The charity UNICEF is also benefiting from Francis Boag’s talents. They approached him about the possibility of using some of his work for greetings cards and he donated two images. He is the only Scottish artist to be part of their permanent collection. Joie de Vivre, which also marks the 25th anniversary of Eduardo Alessandro Studios in Broughty Ferry, runs until September 24. |
