| Ian B. Orman |
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Artist's Statement
Over the years, my painting has evolved into two somewhat different directions. I am primarily a plein air landscape painter. I have found my small farmstead, surrounded by ninety acres of fields, pastures, woods, and wetland provides much of the subject matter for my work. I am particularly attracted to seemingly commonplace materials that are suddenly transformed by either seasonal change, weather, time of day, or merely through paying attention. I feel we often look without seeing. Thus my work is an attempt to share what has attracted me by selecting and heightening those aspects that have provided pleasure and presenting them through the elements and principles of design. I try to take care that the media does not imitate to such a conclusive fashion as to entirely prevent another’s interpretation. A paint surface in its own right, as a somewhat ambiguous collection of color, value and edge, can offer different appearances when viewed at different distances and with different frames of reference.
As plein air painting requires the cooperation of climate and weather, which is often not forthcoming, especially in the winter months, studio painting has offered an alternative. The selection of commonplace materials continues, but here it is influenced by more literary connections. The flotsams of life are often laced with small amounts of irony and presented in a trompe l’oeil technique, which in itself often evokes a degree of humor.
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