Duane Bousfield (b. 1960) grew up in California making art from an early age. Earning a BA in Psychology, he continued studies in Art Therapy and Painting. In 1995 he moved to New York City where he lives and works today.
As a little boy, he recalls looking through art books and getting mad that everything was photographic… landscapes and portraits… He wanted art that set his imagination free.
In his twenties, Bousfield set off to create a style of abstraction as detailed as realism, as if Vermeer painted abstractly. Inspired by Kandinsky, Bosch, Escher, de Kooning, and Klee, his paintings begin with rhythmic perspective lines that weave foreground into background. Surface and medium are always emphasized with textures, scraping, dry-brush, and glazes to show energy and movement.
Over the last 30 years, Duane Bousfield has cultivated a rich art practice that resists categorization and is admired internationally for the dexterity that unites the disparate aspects of his output. Bousfield has three distinct bodies of work: Abstract Landscapes, Dreamscapes and Labyrinths. ‘Abstract Landscapes’ are geometric playgrounds for the eye, where composition and color are the main concerns. ‘Dreamscapes’ are abstracted dramas of allusive figures entwined with the landscape. ‘Labyrinths’ are spontaneous one-line drawings, often into thick paint - the line can be followed like a rollercoaster or seen as a whole image.
Each painting is a journey, and the titles relate thoughts the artist had on that path. Recurring themes seem to be basic human issues like: hopes, fears, searching, striving, love, loss, life, death, and God. Frequent images include birds, gardens, the moon, hearts, people and labyrinths.
Duane Bousfield has exhibited in galleries from California to New York. During Covid he developed the Labyrinth series into gestural action paintings, and has increasingly focused on writing about his work and video presentations. Works by Duane Bousfield are found in major private and public collections, including the Leslie-Lehmann Museum, New York; the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA; and Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA.
As a little boy, he recalls looking through art books and getting mad that everything was photographic… landscapes and portraits… He wanted art that set his imagination free.
In his twenties, Bousfield set off to create a style of abstraction as detailed as realism, as if Vermeer painted abstractly. Inspired by Kandinsky, Bosch, Escher, de Kooning, and Klee, his paintings begin with rhythmic perspective lines that weave foreground into background. Surface and medium are always emphasized with textures, scraping, dry-brush, and glazes to show energy and movement.
Over the last 30 years, Duane Bousfield has cultivated a rich art practice that resists categorization and is admired internationally for the dexterity that unites the disparate aspects of his output. Bousfield has three distinct bodies of work: Abstract Landscapes, Dreamscapes and Labyrinths. ‘Abstract Landscapes’ are geometric playgrounds for the eye, where composition and color are the main concerns. ‘Dreamscapes’ are abstracted dramas of allusive figures entwined with the landscape. ‘Labyrinths’ are spontaneous one-line drawings, often into thick paint - the line can be followed like a rollercoaster or seen as a whole image.
Each painting is a journey, and the titles relate thoughts the artist had on that path. Recurring themes seem to be basic human issues like: hopes, fears, searching, striving, love, loss, life, death, and God. Frequent images include birds, gardens, the moon, hearts, people and labyrinths.
Duane Bousfield has exhibited in galleries from California to New York. During Covid he developed the Labyrinth series into gestural action paintings, and has increasingly focused on writing about his work and video presentations. Works by Duane Bousfield are found in major private and public collections, including the Leslie-Lehmann Museum, New York; the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA; and Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA.