exhibitions & events 2023

Paul Boyle

Hullscapes

"…That fishing boat is a secret
approaching me. It's a secret
coming out of another one.
I want to know the first one of all"

On the Pier at Kinlochbervie (extract), Norman MacCaig

 "Post Glasgow School of Art my real introduction to printmaking was at the Glasgow Printmakers Workshop in Ingram St. Techniques included photo silk screen, block printing, lithography and etching. I went there to gain printmaking experiences which I could use in my new teaching career. Later I spent a summer in Orkney painting in watercolour. I had always had a parallel interest in photography which I took up aged 14, and worked at becoming technically proficient and well rounded.

Later I began to think about, and work towards, finding a common space for painting, printmaking and photography - a sharing of common aesthetic co-ordinates. In my teaching career I taught both chemical and digital photography as part of the Art & Design curriculum and explored innovative (for me) printmaking practices, working towards developing synergistic contacts between photography and other artistic disciplines."

Direct influences include Matisse, Picasso, Klee, Miro and Nicholson. Photographers include Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ansel Adams, Paul Strand, Edward Weston and Walker Evans.

Paul looks upon his creative practice as a form of printmaking and thinks almost entirely in terms of handling of visual elements, as opposed to the use of the camera as a recording tool. Since re-engaging with the Glasgow Print Studio some years ago Paul has greatly benefited from the skill and advice of Murray Robertson, the Digital Studio Coordinator.

The Development of the Hullscape Project:

"From my secondary school art days I had developed the practice of describing subject matter using the language of the visual elements - lines, planes, colour, mood, as well as seeing the subject objectively in terms of given names - trees, sea etc. As a visually imaginative youngster I would randomly construct shapes, patterns and objects out of natural forms (faces in clouds etc) - the concept of pareidolia.

In 2009 when I was wandering in a boatyard and flitting visually between these dualities of observation, I became aware of the presence of ‘Hullscapes’ in the surface colour and texture of the weathered hulls, some untouched since being lifted from the sea, others under repair and renovation.

I use a single lens based image for each piece of work which is processed in Adobe LightRoom.

Recently one of the Hullscapes was given a Facebook ‘like’ with the comment ‘Wabi-sabi’, a phrase which embodies a notion of traditional Japanese beauty and can infer quiet simplicity, quirks and anomalies in natural and constructed objects, beauty that comes with age and the visible evidence of maintenance and repair - an aesthetic appreciation of individuality and impermanence.

See more works from this exhibition

Image: Paul Boyle, 'Hullscape 169', digital archive photo, 50 x 50 cm, edition of 75.