Anne Boysen is a creative and versatile artist with a remarkable flair for experimentation. She specializes in landscapes and flowers, exploring paths both impressionistic and abstract, applying a full palette of colors to work of compelling moods that range from exuberance to quietude.
A lifelong Pennsylvania resident who has lived mostly in Philadelphia, Boysen has studied at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia College of Art, and Temple University (Med.) Over the last two decades, Boysen's work has been featured in numerous local, regional, and national juried shows, including the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She has had more than a dozen one-person shows, won a number of awards, including several first and purchase prizes, and been named a Liquitex Artist of the Month. Today Boysen paintings hang in more than 75 major corporate, financial, and healthcare institutions--including JP Morgan, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Lehigh-Portland Cement, Wachovia Bank, and Pfizer Drug--and a number of universities. See "Links" for current galleries and exhibitions. The artist's resume is available upon request by email.
“Painting is my life, my work, and my fun. I am compelled to paint. For me, it is almost an unconscious act: My paintings paint themselves. I love color, and I love to make a mess. Sometimes I put paint on the canvas only to scrape it off. “Much of my inspiration seems to come from a deep love for nature and for music. I’ve always been happy out-of-doors. Not surprisingly, I’ve spent much of my painting career doing landscapes. Taking a landscape class at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was like finding myself: ‘My god, this is me.’ “For well over a decade, I focused mainly on plein-air landscapes. Year after year, in snow, rain, heat and wind, I loaded easel, paints, brushes, rags, food, and water into my car and struck out to find scenes that spoke to me about the beauty of the natural world. The challenges included tics, hunters, the wind, no bathroom or soda machine, joggers wanting a painting, a naked man wanting me to sunbathe with him, even somebody speaking in tongues. “Eventually I tired of the tics and all the lugging. I also arrived at a turning point. After hundreds of landscapes, I wanted to try something new: to depart from what is there and focus more on what I feel about what I see. So I moved indoors and become a studio painter.
“My first works were oils mixed with wax, and they were abstract. Being untied to an image was freeing, working from the heart a revelation. Soon I began doing floral abstracts using acrylics, water, and collage, incorporating imagery of flowers cut from old canvases onto new canvases I’d underpainted to create whole new works.
I hate detail, so what you see on the canvas is not meant to be real but an statement, an essence. “This experimentation led me to what I call musical abstracts: As a kid, I loved to dance, put on shows, and sing. As an adult, I’m also a musician wannabe: I have studied piano, flute and voice. My musical abstracts are a direct response to pieces, classical or otherwise, that I play while working. Among the musical artists who have flowed into my own art works are Smetana, Beethoven, and Elvis. “Eventually all this exploration rekindled my love of landscapes, but in a new mode: as abstract paintings. “These days I.m painting impressionist landscapes and abstracts. But I continue to experiment, and my work takes many turns. I.ve been painting a long time, yet every time I stand in front of a new canvas, I feel like a kid in a candy shop. (Resume upon Request).