San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Michael Boshart - Photo by Kinsee Morlan
There’s a video on Vimeo by Tommy McAdams that shows the quiet, intimate process behind figurative art. A melodious song by Devendra Banhart plays while a well-lit, beautiful model sits for artist Michael Boshart. The artist starts with a pencil sketch then blends together an abstracted under-painting before he starts the long, delicate steps that using oil paints requires.
“That kind of gives you an idea of what goes on here,” Boshart says, showing me the video then giving a quick tour of his live/work studio at unit D, 1878 Main St. in Barrio Logan. “But the down side [to the video] is that people think I can produce these paintings pretty quickly, but it doesn’t work that way.”
What the video edits don’t show is Boshart’s patience and dedication to getting things exactly right. He’s as meticulous and precise with each brush stroke as he is with the tattooing he did for years, and one small painting can take him upwards of 30 hours. He prefers sticking to the practice of fairly traditional figurative art as opposed to more contemporary pop art because he thinks it’s more accessible to audiences while still requiring a certain level of skill.
“I’ve always been interested in figurative art,” Boshart says. “I just think it’s the one of the hardest to do, and it’s one of the easiest to critique or judge—anyone can look at it and say, ‘that doesn’t look human.’”
But Boshart’s paintings go beyond simply looking human. He’s one of the few artists who can capture moods and feelings by knowing when to let pure representation give way to expression.
“Sometimes, a painting will look too finished to me,” Boshart says. “I want it to be a painting, not a picture.”
You can see Boshart’s work, including the finished version of the piece pictured in the video, at his open studio from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, alongside works by his neighbor Brandon Roth and his buddy Andrew Breunig.
“That kind of gives you an idea of what goes on here,” Boshart says, showing me the video then giving a quick tour of his live/work studio at unit D, 1878 Main St. in Barrio Logan. “But the down side [to the video] is that people think I can produce these paintings pretty quickly, but it doesn’t work that way.”
What the video edits don’t show is Boshart’s patience and dedication to getting things exactly right. He’s as meticulous and precise with each brush stroke as he is with the tattooing he did for years, and one small painting can take him upwards of 30 hours. He prefers sticking to the practice of fairly traditional figurative art as opposed to more contemporary pop art because he thinks it’s more accessible to audiences while still requiring a certain level of skill.
“I’ve always been interested in figurative art,” Boshart says. “I just think it’s the one of the hardest to do, and it’s one of the easiest to critique or judge—anyone can look at it and say, ‘that doesn’t look human.’”
But Boshart’s paintings go beyond simply looking human. He’s one of the few artists who can capture moods and feelings by knowing when to let pure representation give way to expression.
“Sometimes, a painting will look too finished to me,” Boshart says. “I want it to be a painting, not a picture.”
You can see Boshart’s work, including the finished version of the piece pictured in the video, at his open studio from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, alongside works by his neighbor Brandon Roth and his buddy Andrew Breunig.
