Beki Borman

The season is certainly proving to be an interesting one for observing change.  The mild weather, with a few bouts of snow, has created a situation in which the view of the pond changes daily.  This painting is done from a photo taken January 17th.  Here is what I wrote about that day:

 

1-17-12

I took an extended walk today. We had a few more inches of snow this morning, putting a fresh blanket over the park. Despite the snow, the temperature was agreeable. Again I was memorized by the quiet, desolate feeling just after a snow storm. However, I was not completely alone. There was a set of recent tracks, one dog and one human (I am guessing female by the shoe size). I found myself following the tracks inadvertently for most of my walk. I studied the straight pacing of the human in contrast to the meandering path of a dog. Tracks became one of the themes of this walk. I also observed squirrel tracks darting from tree to tree. Finally, later in the walk, I came across a set of human tracks that were oddly positioned. It was as if the person were incredibly pigeon toed. The feet faced away from each other to a great degree and the spacing indicated large wide steps. I tried mimicking this pattern for a while in my own tracks. I could in fact imitate them but found it curious why they existed in the first place. It certainly was not a comfortable way to walk.

By taking a longer walk today I had time to notice other minute details. For example, I was enchanted by the crackling music of ice and snow in the tree branches when a wind whipped through. The was almost a melody to it. Also, when the winds picked up I saw whirlwinds of snow lift of the ground and dance. There was a magical animation today, or maybe I am just in a fantastical mood. And yes, there was the pond, there as always. I feel like I am really just beginning to know it. The same is true for my paintings.

In regards to the pond paintings, I feel the past month is all that really counts. I imagine I will feel the same way two months from now about the paintings I am to make. In any case I feel like I have a long ways to go in achieving what I mean to achieve. I still sense that there is something I am not seeing or doing, a limitation I am placing on myself that is stifling this project. I can only hope that through repeatability and introspection I can resolve it.

 

Journal excerpt 12/26/11

Image: Pond Study 18, pastel on paper, 7″ x 11″

The holidays have come and gone, but yet we wait for a significant snowfall. What dusting was received last week is now long gone. The pond has become bare and boring. I find myself waiting for something to happen- anything. The browns, grays, and dirty blues of this quiet winter are now mundane to me. A brilliant white snowfall would surely make the scene come alive again. So I have resorted to seeking out new visions.

 

The most obvious solution was to paint the park at night. I will confess upfront that I used a bit of photo trickery for this one. I took a nighttime picture, which as you would expect was pretty colorless. I took this picture a few weeks ago, and have already written about the quiet cold and silence of the evening. Now I will reflect on the art making process I undertook. Using Photoshop, I exaggerated the saturation and contrast a bit until the underlying blues and yellows of darkness revealed themselves. The streetlights made the sky glow softly yellow, and the silhouettes of trees become deep pthalos of blue and green. Sticking with this somewhat limited palette, I rendered the image twice. First in pastel and then in oil. I allowed myself a bit more color diversity in the pastel, pulling purples and reds out of the blackness. With the oil painting, as with most of them, the colors simplify. This is in part due to the size of the mark (a large painting knife edge) and to the process of mixing. I am aware of the ways in which medium contribute to the result and I find it informative to use both mediums in approaching an image. I have been exercising this processes for most of my works lately. The pastel drawings become a preliminary color study, though stand alone as works themselves. I wonder what if anything would change if I did the oil painting first and the pastel second? In any case, as I wait for snow I think I will attempt to capture more of the dramatic moments. I feel a little dirty about using Photoshop, but do not think I am sacrificing the intention. I want to make interesting paintings, and sometimes the truth of an image is boring. The artist’s job is to walk the line between adding interest while maintaining a connection to actual experience that is real enough for people to still care. I suppose novelists walk this same line in many ways.