Have you met…Wayne Boucher?

Wayne Boucher’s Studio, R to L: Spring 2012, and Dragon.

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Wayne Boucher.

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Wayne Boucher was the recipient of the 2006  Nova Scotia Portia White Award for excellence, innovation, and expression in the arts.

Wayne Boucher studied at the Banff Centre, Alberta, and at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1975.  The following year he moved to Graywood, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia where he continues his painting practice at his studio in Parker’s Cove.
Boucher’s solo professional exhibition record spans the past three decades.

The recipient of numerous grants from provincial and federal agencies including a Canada Council Established Artist Grant in 2001, other key professional successes include winning the 2004 juried competition to execute the mural entitled Réveil for  the  new  Interpretation Centre at Grand-Pré National Historic Site that marks the 18th Century Acadian Deportation.

Boucher became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 2002.  Other active memberships include the Canadian Artists Representation, and Visual Arts Nova Scotia. Boucher is a founding member and A past chair of the Annapolis Region Community Arts Council.

369 .Fractels. 2011 30×30

Wayne Boucher Artist Statement:

“Current strategies deal with the luminosity of light, and the radiance of colour in counterpoint with elemental schemata that transcends surface and meaning. The intent of my work has been for the viewer to “fall in and drown in the work” and see things beyond the surface of the paintings.

From the large black and white paintings and drawings of the mid 1980’s right through to the present day coloured works; I have been fascinated by the see-through images and imaginings of the x-ray vision of aboriginal artists and their art. To see beyond the surface, whether it be, the early schematics of something/someplace; or to the current painting process whereby the dance of paint application, movement, direction, tools and their manner of use inform its’ significance, either as an object/painting unto itself or having further consequential narratives beyond the surface.

The process and manner of application creates architectural and elemental spaces where marks, gestures and push-pull dynamics inform the theatrics and content of the image. From the guest curator, Peter Dykhuis of Radiance and Counterpoint” AGNS, 2006: “Boucher orchestrates space with colour.  It is the lead actor in his theatre, but is not the stage that contains the choreography or the narrative”. And from Richard Mueller’s essay for the exhibition ‘Stations’, “ Stripping away the particulars of plot and narrative, he grounds the work in an illusive, yet essentially familiar dramatic event”.

The series of work entitled “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell” (images 1 to 10 2009 -2011) purpose was to simplify notions, and sensibilities of mark making  into a cohesiveness of intent, paint application and implied meaning or interpretation. The 2005 work, “Ladder at the Gate” was the impetus for this new body of work. “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell” may pertain to a stage of acceptance, rejection, or being somewhere in transit between the gates of heaven and hell. Who knows?

The “Blue Pool” series (2011) of paintings and exhibition evolved from previous blue paintings reminiscent of water, and a 1996 small 10” x 12” painting entitled “Waiting for Paris” which used a tiled walkway around a blue surface. All the paintings in this series are blue, lit from within, and use a common tiled like geometric pattern walkway/platform around parts of the edge.

In response to the horrific Japanese Earthquake of March 11, 2011 at 10;36, and feeling completely helpless the blue pool paintings evolved into mythical narratives of paint such as in  “Rising Sun:The Morning After. .Japan rescue attempt number one from the golden platform with large Yellow Crane.” The Awakening of the Sun /Réveil Du Soleil  at 123 degrees on  12/21/2012 painting dealt with the sunrise in Nova Scotia and the point the sun breaks the horizon line, the winter solstice and the end of Mayan calendar.”

Wayne Boucher 2012

399. Dive 2012. 36×36

Other material relating to Wayne Boucher.

Artist Website: www.wayneboucher.ca

Youtube: Wayne Boucher.

Visual Arts Nova Scotia: Wayne Boucher.

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