PRESS: THE AFRICA PAINTINGS

RL•S Gallery, Charleston, SC, Features Works by J.B. Boyd
The Africa Paintings

CHARLESTON – On October 7, 2005 Robert Lange Studios will house the African landscape in a completely new manner. The expanding countryside of Cape Town, Namibia, Zimbabwe and many others will come to life via the tightly knit strokes of artist J.B. Boyd. These obsessive works are not characterized by their technical proficiency or impeccable use of color, which are both apparent, but rather by their measurement, Boyd’s need to constantly pair length versus width.

As fine art enthusiasts step into RL•S Gallery on historic East Bay Street they may be greeted with a 90-inch wide painting that boasts of no more than 3 inches in height. This profound composition consists of nothing more than a photo-realistic landscape painted with the tiniest of brushes. This view does; however, cover thousands of miles highlighting the majestic vistas Boyd was privy to while traveling. Within this specific show, we find the extreme horizontal as described, but also the extreme vertical, the square, the extensive small painting, and the bare minimal enormous piece. Each composition is intentional and always unique.

As a first time viewer conquers their understanding of these extreme compositions they will notice what can only be described as a beeswax finish to the pieces. The first layers of these paintings are graphite sketches followed by a burnt sienna and turpentine wash to create the underlying lights and darks of the image. Boyd then slowly works in multiple layers of color. The surface is carefully kept flat to preserve the uniformity of space, and the final surface layer is a glaze of cold wax. This not only provides an archival protective layer for the painting, but also adds the soft matte finish not often seen with oil painting.

J.B. considers himself a professional vagabond, constantly traveling in search of a place. “This search is as ambiguous as it is elusive, like the horizon line in the distance.” Once found, whether it is Wyoming, Santa Fe, or in his most recent adventures, Southern Africa, Boyd immerses himself in the landscape, recording his panoramas with the simplest of 35 mm SLR cameras. These paintings are modern documents of that landscape, culled from extensive the photographs taken along those roads, then cropped, edited and rearranged into works that bring to life the many destinations of a practiced traveler. The paintings in this series can be viewed at Robert Lange Studios, Fine Art Gallery at 151 East Bay Street, in downtown Charleston.