Dawn Boyer

Dawn Boyer was born in Maine and grew up mostly in North Carolina and New Hampshire. She has an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has drawn or painted in one form or another for her entire life. Boyer has studied with Timothy Hawkesworth, Krista Harris, Carol Pelletier, Christopher Volpe, Nella DeLuca Lush, and Bernd Haussmann, who have had an immense influence on her work.  She is known for her use of reverberating color in a style that she refers to as abstract lyricism, the “space between” the realistic and the abstract, the personal and universal, the intellectual and intuitive. “Water, landscapes, and gardens will always pull at me,” she says. “I’m not interested in them as subjects per se. I’m more interested in their energy and the emotional response that energy evokes, the way nature expresses abundance without reservation the way so many people are afraid to in their own. We are connected deeply to nature, and yet in our fast-paced, technologically addicted society, we too easily lose touch with that connection. I will never tire of exploring the mystery of how integral those natural forces are to our well being.”

She works mostly in oils and acrylics, and her style can either be bold, with energetic marks and thick paint, or minimalistic, full of color fields and soft edges. All are richly layered until they convey the emotional resonance Boyer wants to express. She tries not to plan too steadfastly, as she is not as interested in subject depiction as in how a painting communicates with a viewer and creates a response. She concentrates on the interplay between color, harmony, light, shape, line work, and value, and she allows a piece to say what it needs to as she moves various tools across canvas or panel or board. Then, she steps back to listen and observe, and approaches again.

Music plays a big part in her process (Boyer is a professional singer as well as an artist); listening to it as she paints creates an essential rhythm and flow to each composition. Chopin’s nocturnes, contemporary female jazz composers, French gypsy jazz, New Orleans jazz, blues, roots-based gospel, and Memphis soul are particular favorites.

"It’s a captivating and elusive process, a siren call to what has not yet made itself known," she says. "As I paint, I observe movement, feel a rhythm, and listen to what the work tries to tell me. Technique meets intuition. Trust takes the upper hand. Senses heighten, emotions rise, thoughts deepen, everything converges, I 'wake up,' and the world can no longer be the same. I hope my work brings this experience to viewers, and that they enrich it by weaving in their own."

I chose water as a theme for this series—called IN THE DEEP—to express a multi-layered narrative of the feminine, of climate change, of the undulating tension between different kinds of power and strength. Color fields and soft edges, which I'm drawn to for so many reasons, invite the viewer to dive into the story. In addition, the words of women poets are woven into each piece to add more resonance and meaning about what it means to be a woman in our society ... and to give voice to what is all-too-often washed away. 

New Hampshire

United States