Adriaan Boshoff
Info: Adriaan Boshoff is arguably the best artist working in South Africa. His light, impressionistic style has the gift of trying not so much to capture light as to stop time. As Boshoff says: "I want to capture fleeting moments before they disappear forever."
His technique is interesting. He will make numerous sketches of a subject but, more importantly, creates mental sketches that he appears to have the ability to save indefinitely. Working on the spot in large sketchbooks, Boshoff is able to record the range of virtual information before him in skilled
application of pencil. While these preparatory studies tend inevitably to be more descriptive than the studio-produced oils made back at his home in Thabazimbi or the Hennops Valley, they have freshness that is utterly beguiling. I think this is due to the artist's unrelenting professionalism when he starts work on an oil. "I don't regard it as complete before it is as perfect as I can make it," he says. Naturally this can be a lengthy process and Boshoff often tears up what, to the untutored eye, are highly collectable examples of his work. But he is almost fiercely defensive.
"My best painting? I haven't made it yet. It may be the next one. Or the one after that."
He's a will-o-the-wisp sort of man. A man whose inner commitment is to his art but, I suspect, more to his faith which is Christianity, creates in him a set of needs and principles that for others could be profoundly disturbing. Most artists crave recognition and publicity. Boshoff disclaims both. Most artists work best in familiar surroundings, often almost superstitiously insistent on a studio routine that makes them comfortable.
Boshoff's daughter Louise says that she went to 14 different schools and that her father lived in a veritable encyclopedia of South Africa towns to try and accommodate his churning need to move on and discover something new.



