John Bernard Boyle

John Bernard Boyle

John Bernard Boyle, painter (b at London, Ont 23 Sept 1941). Self-taught, Boyle, whose aim in youth was to be a writer, began painting around 1962 with the support of friends Greg CURNOE and Jack CHAMBERS. Boyle favours primary colours and bold handling. His work, which includes heavily painted portraits, often huge, of well-known Canadian figures such as Tom THOMSON, POUNDMAKER and Stephen LEACOCK, expresses his determined Canadian nationalism. He has also experimented with baked porcelain on steel. His paintings of the male and female nude (often himself or his wife) are as bold as any in contemporary art. In 1991, the London Regional Art Gallery in London, Ont, organized a retrospective exhibition of his work that toured Canada and Belgium.