Francis Boag DA. MA.








A summer conversation with Anne, a young French lady with lots of IT expertise, first planted the seeds that my website could benefit from being more interactive.

I found myself agreeing with her but found the idea of writing a ‘blog’ a step too far for someone who still finds the telephone a bit daunting.

However Stewart and I who work closely together on my site and are always looking to enlarge and improve the education & communication elements have decided to try a regular spot which will highlight any new developments regarding my work.

Although it might take more time than either of us actually has, the hope is that it will encourage feedback from the many people who already visit the site regularly.

I receive emails from fellow artists and art enthusiasts from all over the world and this new section is intended to open up these lines of communication and see what develops.

Thanks to everyone who has contacted me in the past .You have no idea how rewarding it is to know that my work is being seen and appreciated in so many different places.

If you have any comments about this site or my work I would love to hear from you and I will post a selection here

Francis.

December 2007

Unicef comissioned ‘Ury Christmas’ as their corporate card for Christmas 2007.

12.10.07

I would like to thank everyone who visited my studio during NEOS week.

Talking to the people who were there it was obvious that NEOS has become a real ‘event’ and is eagerly awaited by hundreds if not thousands of people who have an interest in the visual arts in the north east.

The event couldn’t happen without the support network which facilitates the participation of so many artists.

I expected a smattering of callers, mostly other artists but 3 days into the week I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of visitors.

Saturday and Sunday were non stop with whole families, sometimes three generations, arriving. There were spells during the weekend when more than a dozen people would arrive almost simultaneously. This was quite daunting and made personal engagement difficult to achieve with everyone.

One of the benefits of the event is that it gives the artist a feeling for how your work is regarded by the wider public.

Galleries can be quite selective about the feedback they give you so it is useful to hear from people at first hand how they respond to your work.

Visitors were universally kind and enthusiastic. I enjoy discussing my working methods with anyone who might be interested and as any one who takes time to investigate my web site I devote quite a large chunk of it to my working practice.

I am much less at ease selling direct to the public and found this difficult when several different groups were in the studio at the same time.

Sales, however, were exceptionally good and far exceeded my expectations. I hope everyone who bought a painting is happy with their purchase.

Annabelle McDougall of Unicef Geneva has asked me to thank everyone who bought some of the cards I had for sale at 50p each. These raised over £130 which I will sent on the Unicef UK.

This was my first time participating but I have no doubt that the feeling of an ‘event’ drew people out and generated the sort of excitement which is of great benefit to artists and makers.

12.08.2007

I received this from the artist Jen Rowlands and thought you might like to look at her website

Just wanted to let you know that, having discovered your work, I've rediscovered the will to live and paint again, having been through a dark patch (painting, not personal!)- love Faisal's stuff, it seems very gentle work - thank you very very much, your work is so beautiful and makes me glad to be alive.

Her web site is www.famousfeetpaintings.co.uk

15.08.07
dear francis
thanks alot for opening this window for my paintings to be seen in a different part of the world.it means alot to me.
It makes me sad to realize how dark and gloomy our image is in the eyes of the world,thanks to Darfor.Ilive 2000kms away from Darfor inferno yet its flames are burning my face.
I live and work in Portsudan,by the Red See.I have BSc.Geology,Egypt.I took a corresspondance art course with I.C.s international but did not complete it.I am what you call self taught.My main source for learning was and still is the iternet.
for contact;faisaltaj2002@yahoo.com
phone;00249912361204
I made three exhibitions,two in the French Cultural Centre in Portsudan,one in Cairo.

02.08.07

One of the main reasons for starting a blog was to encourage feedback from anyone who enjoyed my work. Like most artists I know insecurity and doubt are always round the corner and it is a real pick-me-up to be reminded that someone somewhere is responding to what you are trying to do.
It is even more rewarding when other artists take the time to pass on their compliments and regards.
I’m old enough not to take the web for granted and to still be amazed when an email arrives from New Zealand or California or Malta.
These are all exotic far away places to me and it comes as a surprise to realize that my representations of the east coast Scottish landscape can resonate in such far flung corners of the globe.
However I am very grateful to everyone who writes and always take the time to respond.
But just recently I received a mail that truly astonished me.
It was from an artist from Sudan and I’d like to share it with you here.

name : faisal tajalsir
enquiry : I just wanted to express my deep admiraion with your works..and as an artist Iwas greatly inspired by them..god bless you..if you are intrested in seeing som sudanese art please visit my blog at fandos.maktoobblog.com.with my regards.

Sadly Sudan and Darfur are regularly in the news with the situation in Darfur being called at the United Nations ’the greatest humanitarian disaster of our time’
The constant barrage of ‘bad news stories from the region can blind you to the fact that ‘normal’ life is still going on.
But the environmental, cultural, religious and economic background of someone from Sudan could hardly be more removed from my own experience and it was truly humbling to realize that an artist from this background could find something in my work which spoke directly to him.
I made contact with Faisal and asked him to send me some images of his paintings.
This he did and again I was astonished and amazed.
I felt a real kinship with his work and felt we were on parallel tracks both seeking in our different ways similar solutions to the questions we ask ourselves.

As my work is now easily available in prints and cards quite a few artists use it as a starting point for their own work and I have no problem with that, but I felt that Faisal’s work was more like a sibling than an offspring.

You can use this link to see more of his work and I will be contacting him for biographical details to include with the paintings so he can have a ‘mini website’
to promote his work. fandos.maktoobblog.com I’m sure you’ll agree that it is great to have a ‘good news’ story from a troubled region and I would love to hear what you think of Faisals work. l also be happy to pass on any mail or indeed requests for paintings.

25.06.07 

The weather for the past couple of weeks has been appalling and while it is nice to be in a warm, cosy studio while it’s pelting down outside, the light has been so poor that it has made painting very difficult.
Trying to find just the right temperature of colour for a particular passage in a painting is hard enough at the best of times but in the prevailing gloom has become almost impossible.

I know that is a repeat of the opening paragraphs to my last blog in march but amazingly it is still true today at the end of june!

However the intervening weeks have been nothing if not exciting. My solo exhibition in Gallery Heinzel at the end of may was spectacular in terms of sales and interest and it ended up my most successful show to date.

Only a small handful of paintings remained to be collected at the end of the show with 50+ sales being recorded and many clients left disappointed that the painting they wanted was sold.

However I have agreed to keep the month of july free from gallery commitments and to work on the backlog of commissions which grew out of the show.

It is hugely rewarding to find my work so appreciated and I would really like to thank all the people who took the trouble to see the exhibition and especially those who were prepared to invest in my work.

I sincerely hope that the painting(s) you made your own bring you great pleasure over the years and eventually repay your confidence in me many times over!

26.06.07

My recent blog about portraits and the 60’s reached an old friend whom I hadn’t seen since those days. Much to my surprise he told me he had a painting from my degree show in Dundee in1969.

I remembered the painting but hadn’t seen it for nearly 40 years so it was with some trepidation I asked if he could send me an image of it.

I post it here without comment…. (that will come later!)

‘superb solo exhibition’ - ‘The Press & journal’ 02 May 2007

PAINTINGS AND GLASS CREATE ART EXCITEMENT . There is an alluring darkness or at least a sense of moody tonality creeping into some of Francis Boag's new paintings in his fourth solo exhibition at Gallery Heinzel in Aberdeen.

The north-east artist is renowned for the vibrancy of his landscapes, and for the surreal palette he uses to set his Scottish rural scenes aglow, yet several of the 47 works in this extensive exhibition show a new, yet highly intriguing colour direction.

Texture and collage are also beginning to play an increasingly important role, coming to the fore and reshaping the works into more abstract forms. This adds an enigmatic quality to the work that lends it a new dimension.

There is still plenty of juicy colour being daringly used however. None more so than in some of the deliciously bawdy still lifes which blaze on the walls as if lit by theatre lights.

Complementing Boag's solo show is a series of stunning glassworks by Tain-based duo Brodie Nairn and Nichola Burns. From their contemporary glass studio Glassstorm, using their knowledge of Scandinavian and Italian glass-making techniques, they create limited edition pieces of extraordinary beauty and organic power.

You can enjoy Boag's superb solo exhibition and glass from Glasstorm at the Gallery Heinzel in Aberdeen until June 2.

RODDY PHILLIPS.

Updated 31st March 2007

In the pre-Christmas edition of the Saturday Heralds’ Arts supplement Francis was featured in a list of Scotland’s most collectable artists. The list included such international names as Jack Vettrianno, John Bellany, Alison Watt and Peter Howson as well as Royal Academicians Elizabeth Blackadder and Barbara Rae.

Francis was delighted to find himself in such august company and reports from galleries and a big increase in ‘hits’ on this site suggest that the article prompted lots of interest in his work which in turn led to a high demand for his work over the Christmas period.

This compilation of ‘artists to invest in’ followed a similar compilation in the Irish press this summer, where Francis found himself selected in a completely different list of Artists almost all of whom were Irish.

His continuing exposure in Dublin and now Co Cork is obviously paying off as it is notoriously difficult for an Artist to achieve success and recognition outside their own borders.

02.03.07

The weather for the past couple of weeks has been appalling and while it is nice to be in a warm, cosy studio while it’s pelting down outside, the light has been so poor that it has made painting very difficult.

Trying to find just the right temperature of colour for a particular passage in a painting is hard enough at the best of times but in the prevailing gloom has become almost impossible.

And as well as the poor light I’ve been suffering a touch of ‘artists block’. Not entirely surprising as I have been working continually on back to back shows since May of last year.

I spent a couple of idle days reading Len Deighton – again!

Does anyone know why he isn’t writing any new books?

Maybe it was the setting of the book ‘Horse under Water’ which I first read while at Dundee Art College in the sixties but I began to wonder what I would be painting if I was 19 again?

So indulging myself, I knocked off in double quick time the three images you see here.

What do you think?

The first one was ‘Marilyn’ which obviously owes more than a little to Andy Warhol but hopefully has enough of ‘me’ in it, followed by ‘John’ and then ‘Paul’.

I had a great time painting them. It was better than a rest and gave me loads of new ideas for future work.

It also took me full circle as I started my ‘commercial’ art career in 1963 when I would take requests from girls in my class at school to draw pictures of the Beatles.

If my memory holds I think sixpence was the going rate for a pencil drawing with a watercolour retailing at the princely sum of one shilling!

Plus ca change.

16.02.07

Looks like we have a winner of the spot-the painting competition.

Here is the winning entry;
name : Roger lane
enquiry : Hi Francis

I have been admiring your work for a few years now. And I must say that you have had some influence on my own work. So thank you for that. Now to the competition. I would say that the top row would be AUTUMN GLEN CLOVA and DUNNOTTAR GLOW and the bottom row would be SUN URY HOUSE and CREEL INN CATTERLING.

Thankyou again
Roger
So a signed print on its way to Roger!!
Well done.

10.02.07

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that I did indeed split the board shown below into 4 and the resulting paintings are now in the gallery section of the site.

A prize of a small signed print goes to the first person to match up the finished paintings with the four panels shown in the previous blog.

24th January 2007

I thought I might give you an insight to my studio practice and hopefully help me make the right decision.

This is one of the paintings underway in the studio at the moment . It measures 60x60 cms and I’ve reached ‘make your mind up time’
As I say in the ‘Artist International’ article I try to keep my options open with a painting as long as possible and let the painting ‘talk to me’
Well this painting is definitely trying to tell me something but all I can hear at the moment is ‘go on, cut me into four - you know it makes sense!’

While my head it saying ‘ this is a nice painting, it doesn’t need much to be a successful landscape there is a persistent voice in my ear saying…..the colours and energy are great BUT it’s a bit busy and all over the place… wouldn’t it be even better if you quartered it and let the shapes and composition have more impact on the smaller scale’

Once that little voice gets going its very hard to ignore. It’s the same voice that says ‘one more glass of wine is hardly going to make much difference… and.. but chocolate is actually good for you now’

What do you think? Here are the four possible panels.

Each panel now measures 30x30 cms. Remember they can all be rotated to be seen in 4 different views ie

So choices, choices!

But do you see what I mean? They have a stronger identity and more striking compositions when the shapes establish some parity with the colour.

What do you think?

Should I listen to the little voice or should I stick with the original work?

If you want to save it you have 24 hrs !!!

18th January 2007

2007 kicks of with The London Art Fair 17-21 January.

http://www.londonartfair.co.uk/

This is now a major international fair and I’m fortunate enough to be showing again with Tracey Mcnee Fine Art from Glasgow.

I visited the fair last year and was overwhelmed by the range and quality of work on show not to mention the prices.

I was fascinated walking round listening to the gallery staff give their ‘spiel’

At one stand I eavesdropped on the sale of a small Howard Hodgkin. The wall price was £16,000 but in a few minutes this dropped to £13,500 after some expert haggling by someone who looked suspiciously like Steven Berkoff

To continue with the name dropping, I was staying at le Gaffe in Hampstead in the smallest room I’ve ever slept in and that includes the Caledonian sleeper but the restaurant was very good and on the evening I was there Martin Bell and David Soul were enjoying a meal together with family and friends.

At another table was a Japanese family of whom the father seemed vaguely familiar but it wasn’t till he asked the proprietor to ‘beam him up a taxi’ did the penny drop.

I’d been sitting across from Mr. Sulu from Star trek