For the past several years, Lynn Boggess has been focusing on increasing spatial depth in his landscape paintings, as well as increasing energy and freshness. For his upcoming solo show at Principle Gallery, we see these elements come together in around 20 new works that depict a full calendar of seasons.
20 January 2026, oil on canvas, 54 x 46 in.
“Boggess’ paintings don’t ask for quiet contemplation, they demand physical attention,” says gallery director Clint Mansell. “Built entirely with cement trowels and palette knives, these works are aggressively material, pushing oil paint into ridges, fractures and reflective planes that feel closer to excavation than depiction…The surfaces carry evidence of labor at every inch, rejecting refinement in favor of risk and immediacy. This exhibition is not about pastoral calm or nostalgic nature—it’s about confrontation with place, process and the limits of control. Boggess reminds us that landscape painting can still be urgent, physical and unapologetically raw.”
22 October 2025, oil on canvas, 34 x 30 in.
While the new body of work ranges in size, Boggess shares that his larger paintings are inspired by his home in the highlands of central West Virginia on a rugged, yet beautiful tract of land. “There are trails which, for a plein air artist, are essential for getting to areas with the necessary equipment for large-scale works—and privacy!” The artist explains. “My equipment can remain in place for days without security concerns until a painting is finished. The 120 acres was one of the first things for which I saved and purchased when I began my career decades ago, and it will always be a treasure.”
Works like 2 January 2026,depicting a snowy bank and a creek, is an example of how access to locations is important to Boggess. “[This] is especially true of painting snow,” the artist says. “Heavy snow must be allowed to melt down, and the most dramatic, remaining areas are along waterways with drifted snowbanks. I found this particular spot on an exceedingly quiet morning in the Potomac Highlands on the edge of a national park. It was so still, I don’t even remember a single bird disturbing the silence. These are the kinds of places I look for.”
30 April 2025, oil on canvas, 15 x 30 in.
Show piece 30 April 2025 showcases Boggess’ bold use of texture. “There are wild crabapple trees at the entrance of my wilderness tract, and I paint them every spring,” he notes. “They begin with a spiny mesh of interlocking limbs which function much like barbed wire. First comes the pea-sized cadmium red buds, which then rupture into a delicate white and pink, which are fully blushed white soon afterwords. This entire transition takes place within a few weeks, so I clear my schedule every spring to capture it.”
2 January 2026, oil on canvas, 34 x 30 in.
Boggess shares that he has always started his compositions with a flurry of rapid decisions, allowing the intuitive, spontaneous nature of the painting to match up with the living forms he’s trying to interpret. “Recently, I have been extending that energy into the later stages of the paintings, far beyond the point at which I would normally slow down to refine the details,” he says. “I am liking the results. They have the increased vigor I’ve been searching for.” Spatial depth is also an important factor in Boggess' work, an element he says is “demanding for painters who use gestural, thick surface paint, which is nearly antithetical to the nature of pictorial space.”
Boggess’s solo show will be on view at Principle Gallery’s Alexandria, Virginia, location from April 24 through May 11, with an artist reception on the opening day from 6 to 8:30 p.m. —
Principle Gallery 208 King Street Alexandria, VA 22314 • (703) 739-9326 www.principlegallery.com/alexandria
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