Inspiration comes from surprising places, often when and where we least expect it. While it may feel like a lightning bolt from the blue, however, it is more likely a culmination of thoughts and ideas that have been percolating below the surface.
Jeff Berryman’s inspiration for his recent painting, Night Loaders, came in a dream, but was rooted in his family’s history in rural Colorado. “I painted it from memory,” Jeff says. “I know this scene so well. But this particular vision is a thought I had in a dream, based on the feelings I have about growing up there.”
Night Loaders portrays a scene he remembers from his childhood, one that is common to that area. He incorporated several elements to enhance the dreamlike quality of his initial inspiration. For starters, he set the scene at night, with the focus on objects rather than on people. The loader operators are hinted at, but the loaders themselves have all the personality, and appear to be moving on their own. “They’re the story,” Jeff explains.
“The setting is somehow more ominous at night,” he adds. The bright yellow loaders, lit by their own headlights and the glowing moon, pop out of the shadows. Some say the night sky reminds them of Van Gogh’s Starry Night
The swirling smoke moves with the circular clouds and light, guiding the viewer to explore different areas of the piece: the town of Kersey rising in the background with its grain elevator and water tower, the stacked hay bales on one side and the old shed on the other, and the corrugated tin fence in the foreground. “I like to focus on the composition, and create movement and contrasts,” he says, “then add the layers of detail.”
One can imagine the next day, when the loaders are gone and the cattle are back in the corral. On windy days, they huddle against the metal fence or next to the shed. For now though, the corral is quiet, except for sound of the loaders, and the town in the distance is resting up for another day.