Trickland

I have not been on a field trip since middle school, so it felt awkward sitting on a bus full of people I hardly knew. Regardless, I have been out and about visiting and touring my share of museums recently. Not once while I was out on those adventures, was I able to sit down and really force myself to think deeply about a given piece.
At the Walker in Minneapolis, I walked into a large salon-style room full of 90 paintings. It had paintings that reached the ceiling with benches on in the center with binoculars to see the highest paintings. Although the room had giant paintings, I chose a rather small one to study called, Trickland by Michael Borremans, 2002.
Standing farther back from the work, it looks highly detailed and like it was painted with smooth and realistic craftsmanship. However, it is very choppy and busy in strokes up close. Almost like a gesture drawing. The piece is very dark in color around the outter edge and only lightens up slightly from the shadows. The details such as the eyes and delicate noses are deep shadows. The figures look like children all seated and playing with a mock farmland, but it is adults-old women, farmers, mothers.... all placing their hands down on what seems to be a model of a country side.
When I looked at the painting, I felt drawn to it because on how the figures-although not highly detailed, were painted with detail to human proportions.