About

From the book, "A Step  and a Breath" by C.R. Boucher:

I’m often asked, “How do you start a painting?” or “Where do those ideas come from,” or simply, “Where do you start?”

            The simple answer is with the first line of charcoal scraping across the pure white sheet of paper, or the first stroke of paint to create a colored ground on canvas.  I could even say it begins when my eye becomes entranced by the play of light across the surface of the water or the skin of some lonely person sitting in the shade of a giant maple tree.  All are too simple by any measurement.
    When I was about fourteen years old, I visited the MFA in Boston for the first time.  I was a part a group of what was called underprivileged kids.  We were simply the type of kids that were routinely dismissed of forgotten by the mainstream establishments, pushed aside by schools and teachers with more important things to do than to show some poor kid a path.  We became the responsibility of the bleeding heart, liberal college students who protested the Vietnam War and who wanted to somehow make a difference at home, in their own neighborhoods.  To others, maybe more simply, we were a problem for the police and the courts.  In some cases that may have been true, others not quite, but we were all lumped into that same old bag, set aside to wait for the garbage man to bring it to the dump.  This was in the day when a dump was a hole, not a mountain, and before the term landfill was used.  But for the most part we were considered as trash and set aside just like the rest of the city’s refuse.  
    I have heard many times as an adult, the point of view that there is opportunity for those who have the drive and the desire to chase it, but realistically speaking, I did not even know what opportunity was, never mind see a path that might lead me toward something akin to the American Dream.  Thank God for bleeding heart, liberal college students.  They were the ones taking me to the Museum of Fine Art.

                                                ***

    I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts, graduated in 1978 from the famed Durfee High School and joined the U.S. Coast Guard.  During my time in the service I learned that I was not military minded.  I had the heart, soul and mindset of an artist.   
   From the age of twelve years old, there has never been a time I did not have a painting on my easel. I alternately wanted to be Picasso and John Singer Sargent when I grew up, and I guess on some quiet level, I'm still growing up.  My peers and commanders alike encouraged me to “Follow the Muse.”  The images on this website are a testament to the fact that they were right.  I love to follow the muse, although I do wonder some days if we will ever actually meet.  She tires me and enchants me to no end. 
      For me, Art is the process of creation, the artwork (paintings, sculpture, drawings and the even film and music) is quite simply the record of  Art.  The best way for Art to live, is for you the viewer, to engage it, and become a part of the art.  So click on the next page of interest and share with me a moment or two.   Feel free to link to my email and record your feelings and comments.
    In addition to my paintings, I write stories.   Visit my writing pages for more information on my book, Turnstiles, Eternal Rose, and A Step and a Breath.    


                                             Contents    Resume   Sales   Contact