Bennie’s Big Time Pizzeria, 15 x 30 inches, oil on canvas.
I
N “MITCHELL ANDERSON HOUSE,” a depiction of the orange brick
home that boasts the title of the oldest structure in Wilmington,
Bowman imbues the building with remarkable vivacity. Rendered
in brighter shades of orange and red than the nearly 300-year-old
bricks can muster in person, the image is simple, yet detailed; sub-dued,
yet energetic. He represents the structure from the vantage
point of the street corner, including the outlines of nearby houses
and stairs leading up from the sidewalk to the property.
Despite depicting robust scenery, Bowman leaves out fine details
like individual bricks and leaves on a tree in the foreground. He leaves
large swaths of blank space throughout and thin, solid layers of oil
paint are all that is applied in these sections. The color palette is
expressionistic, including pale purples, lime green, and pinkish-reds.
By eliminating what he calls “visual clutter,” Bowman is able to
more clearly communicate what is special and unique about his sub-ject.
Removing the excess detail also offers viewers an opportunity
to appreciate a building, scene or moment that they might not have
otherwise.
“A lot of the scenes and cityscapes we encounter in our day-to-day
lives are so visually complex,” he says. “If I can take that more compli-cated
subject and break it down to the elements that speak to the
essence of that thing, it can bring some clarity to the viewer. Where
someone may have walked by and not liked the building with all of
the visual clutter, when I remove some of that it helps you see it in a
different light and makes the image more special.”
Bowman works in oil paint on canvas, though past experimentation
with watercolor is visible in the way he utilizes and applies color in his
more recent work. The thick texture and blending ability of oil paint,
he says, is ideal for creating a seamless but expressionistic finish.
He begins by laying out a simple drawing in charcoal on a wet,
unprimed canvas. He often uses semi-translucent oil paints and
always applies them straight out of the tube. He avoids muddy
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WBM june 2018