Reflections on a Pond - The Exhibit
Reflections on a Pond is a series of paintings Kevin Macpherson started in 1996, when he conceived a project that would be part visual diary, part exploration of light and nature, and part exercise of sheer will.
Macpherson resolved to do a new 6" × 8" oil painting of the same subject—the pond behind his home—every day that he could, until he had one painting for each day of the year.
The commitment he was making to himself was daunting. Would he have the stamina to paint the very same subject so many times? Would the results excite him, and would they excite anyone else? As Macpherson wrote in his painting journal: “We are so jaded and expectant of special effects and the ‘Wow!’ of something extraordinary. Will nature, just as God intended, entertain by its mere ordinary display of daily effects?”
Due to his frequent travels, it took Macpherson five years to make a pond painting for each day of the year—but he finished the project, and the labor was worth it.
The resulting collection of paintings makes a glorious case for the truism that nothing is more constant than change. In the painting for the cold evening of March 19, the distant mountains behind the pond are bright orange-red, showing off the effect of light that gives this mountain range its name: Sangre de Cristo, or “blood of Christ.” In the painting for July 1, these same mountains are a deep, cool greenish-blue; in October, the yellows and oranges of the changing leaves add warmth to the mountains’ faces. Come January, those hues are replaced by mostly icy blues—yet the artist doesn’t fail to notice the tinges of green and purple.
Claude Monet and other Impressionists of the nineteenth century sought to capture the fast-changing effects of light in their paintings. Likewise, as Macpherson painted his Pond series, he was less concerned with the subject of the pond itself than with the effects of light at different times of the day and year. Macpherson observed and captured the colors he saw, rather than putting down the colors one might think should be there. This keenness of observation is one of the foundations of excellent painting, and as Macpherson points out to his students, it can be learned. Once you learn to see in this way, his students say, you notice the surprising variety of colors in your surroundings, and every day becomes richer.
Many who see the “Reflections on a Pond” exhibit are surprised to learn that every painting in the series was done with the same four paint colors: Cadmium Yellow Light, Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine Blue, and white. Rather than buying tubes of paint in a rainbow of colors, Macpherson believes in mixing his colors from a simple palette of primary colors: a red, a yellow, and a blue, plus white. This technique of mixing colors from a “set palette” yields infinite color choices that, paradoxically, appear harmonious because of their common origins. It’s another of Macpherson’s guiding principles, and for anyone who hasn’t thought about color in this way before, it’s an epiphany.
Taking the Pond exhibit to new venues enables Macpherson to share his art and himself with a wider audience. The small scale of the pond paintings invites viewers to step up close for an intimate visual dialogue
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