A formal sense of geometry, precise composition and unique tonal quality typify Peter Boggs’ paintings. Peter explores the mysterious qualities of light through his interior and landscape paintings: “my interest is in atmospheres and tones, not the accuracy of things – more allegorical than anything illustrative or descriptive; more the idea of place so as to conjure the experience of it…”. Although the locations depicted in the works exist, Peter is more interested in conveying a place through memory and feeling, imbuing the works with a dream-like quality. He considers the subject as more of a prop or a disguise which invites the viewer to contemplate what may be happening. For Peter, it is the idea of the viewer being a witness “caught in a moment that’s transitory”. He skilfully constructs his compositions to reveal glimpses – through a doorway into a deserted passageway or along a winding path that disappears around a bend, or through the trees with only your imagination to reveal the destination. In this way, Peter suggests a sense of absence, someone having departed, inviting questions with no answers. As eminent art critic and historian Professor Sasha Grishin has observed of Peter’s work, “They are memory paintings of feelings that he’s experienced when encountering the spaces, and it is these feelings that he shares with the beholder”.
Born in New Zealand, Peter studied at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, and taught painting and drawing in England and Spain before moving to Australia in 1987. He has held over fifty solo exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia, and was a finalist in both the McMillan Ford Art Award and the Fleurieu Biennale, South Australia. He was the winner of the 2008 Kedumba Drawing Award as well as the 1998 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize. He has been a finalist in numerous prizes including most recently the 2020 Calleen Art Award at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery. In 2014, the survey exhibition, ‘Mysterious Realities; the art of Peter Boggs’ was held at Orange Regional Gallery, NSW. Peter’s work is represented in various collections including Parliament House, Kedumba Drawing Collection, Castlemaine Art Gallery, University of Queensland Art Museum, Newcastle Art Gallery, News Limited, Tattersall’s Club, Telstra, NZ Education Board and Auckland City Art Gallery (New Zealand).
