Description
Absolutely masterful watercolor street scene painting by James C. Borden (1928-2013). Prepare to be awestruck when you lay eyes on this exquisitely detailed watercolor painting by James Borden. The modern painting depicts an ethereal urban scene crowned with summer light. The scale itself is impressive at over four feet wide and three feet high (50.75″ x 36.675″). There is just so much to see, so much texture, so many layers. Borden has truly mastered his medium. This is a watercolor cityscape on paper, housed in a cerused wood frame and protected by a pane of acrylic. The painting’s vibrant colors have beautifully preserved. The mastery of this painting is unreal. Borden’s orchestration of color leads the eye through the painting with late afternoon sunlight carving a path through an otherwise gray urban interior. His use of color is narrative. The viewer is being teased away from gloomy city life with a glimmer of sun and nature on the horizon. The nuance in his layering, through elevated passages of transparency… simply brilliant. Be sure to spend time with this painting. There is more to see each and every time you look. Did you notice the Easter egg? Borden used his name as the sign on one of the buildings on the left. The painting is pencil signed “Jim Borden.”
James C. Borden studied at the School of the American Academy of Art in Chicago and was a life long painter. Mr. Borden spent much of his life in South Bend, Indiana and Vermont. Art was his passion and he painted right up to his death at age 85. He was a sought after portrait artist in South Bend, Indiana. His body of work evolved from portraits to landscapes and even abstract work. Mr. Borden has several paintings in the permanent collection of the South Bend Museum of Art as well as private homes. In 1976 Borden created a portrait series of Lincoln, Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Sitting Bull and Custer for the U.S. Veterans Administration and presented it at the White House.
