Frontier Latest Book: Boswell's Norwich
Boswell's Norwich
Boswell's Norwich
Patrick Boswell
160pp, 100 col illus, April 2008
ISBN: 978-1-872914-26-8 £24.00
The artist, Patrick Boswell, spent a year in the streets painting
eighty Norwich scenes in oils. The outcome of his effort is a series of up-to-date,
yet curiously timeless views and these are put together in his book. He modestly
suggested the title, 'An Artist's Journey', but we have called it Boswell's
Norwich.
This is a city worth painting and turning the book’s pages one is
reminded again and again that Norwich retains great beauty, probably because
its people have cherished it. Views are not confined to the iconic Cathedral
and Castle, or the fabulous old Guildhall, as the artist shows us shops,
pubs, alleyways and bridges as well as relatively modern buildings like the
handsome
station. Boswell paints all the styles and eras of architecture with a pleasing
technique which is loose and free.
His cathedral spire isn't drawn with a ruler and distant figures are tricks
of the brush but his work is genuine. He gets to the essence of a place by
being there, without using a camera or working from photographs.
The style is unintrusive in a single picture, but in the book one sees the
overall manner and realises what Boswell has actually achieved.
Boswell’s Norwich has a foreword by the artist, Paul Darley,
and is made complete by the inclusion of a few of Patrick Boswell's pencil
sketches and written accounts. This 'Painting Diary' adds life, hidden
detail and a stream of Norwich memories and anecdotes to each location.
He records the date and the weather:"Started off cloudy but the sun came out half-way through my painting". Among many meetings, he mentions those passers by who stopped, mostly friends, fellow artists, and some interesting visitors who accepted the street painter at face value.
Born and brought up in Norwich, Patrick Boswell,1942- ,is a hereditary
freeman of the city with an interesting background for a project such as
this. His
Great grandfather, James, together with his brother Samuel were main dealers
for A.J.Munnings in East Anglia, selling from their gallery in London Street,
Norwich. His Great-great Grandfather, William, knew Crome and John Sell Cotman
and most of the others in the Norwich School of Artists, handling their works
both as
a dealer and carver and gilder. Following in the fine art business in Norwich,
Patrick Boswell turned fulltime to painting in 1993. Four years later he
was a National prize winner in the Laing Art Competition at London's Mall
Galleries. Within Norfolk, his work has been exhibited at Crome Gallery,
Mandell's Gallery,
Fairhurst Gallery and Ringstead Gallery. Although he 'goes foreign' to paint
in Italy, Greece and Holland, he is better known for his Norfolk coastal
scenes showing expanses of shoreline bursting with light and colour.
Rights: ©2008 Patrick Boswell/ Frontier Publishing.
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