10/07/2026
Through his leadership role at the Hillsborough Community Garden, John Beerman has developed a deeply physical relationship with the natural world. Gardening is not simply an act of observing nature, but of participating in it and serving those in the community experiencing food insecurity by working the soil, planting seeds, responding to sun and rain, and experiencing the unpredictable rhythms of growth, change, and
renewal.
That intimate engagement with nature offers a compelling parallel to Beerman’s move toward abstraction. His newest paintings are less concerned with depicting a particular landscape than with
capturing something more elemental: its energy, movement, rhythm, and sensation. Like gardening, the process is intuitive and physical, rooted in experience rather than observation.
In both the garden and the studio, Beerman responds to what is felt as much as what is seen. The landscape becomes less something to simply observe and more something to experience—to enter, explore, and feel.
Pictured:
Leaf & Drops,52x46
Mary's Flower, 38x30
