BRIAN BOULTON

Vancouver artist Brian Boulton captures singular moments of everyday life in his detailed drawings of anonymous subjects. Based on digital photos, these solitary figures face away from the viewer and are removed from their urban environment. The subtle difference in the texture of fabrics work together to construct a portrait of these anonymous individuals. These details are rendered delicately in graphite by the artist. Brian sees his drawings as a neutral documentation of a subject which becomes a collaboration with the viewer as they participate by projecting both personality and history on the subjects.

Brian has employed photography as a base for his drawings since his early years. While many contemporary artists generate digital images as a final product, he reverses this process by producing a physical analog image from the digital file. This process of manual reproduction assigns new significance to minute details; while the consequence of a knitted texture may be lost in a photograph, it gains new importance when rendered exactly by hand. Brian’s painstakingly detailed and complex practice is further nuanced by the incorporation of an element of spontaneity. Unaware they are being photographed, the subjects assume uninhibited, natural and occasionally classic poses that lend the images a timeless quality which would otherwise be obfuscated by their contemporary clothing.