Artist Bill Broder at work in his studio.

 

Stephanie Wright Hession, Special to The Chronicle Nov. 25, 2005, Updated: Jan. 15, 2012 10:32 p.m.
(Revised Feb. 6, 2021 by Meranda Broder) Artist Bill Broder at work in his studio. At 66, Bill Broder of
Walnut Creek has been painting since he was 11 years old. An impressionist, he mainly works in mixed
media, including oils and acrylic, charcoal, watercolor, pastels, pencil and ink, sand, and xerox. A house
painter by trade, Broder has built a small studio in his backyard. Event in Walnut Creek, CA Photo by
Michael Maloney

 

“To sit no longer in front of my subject but right in the middle of it. The pleasure inflates about
me. It forms as it infuses, ‘til the mystery of asleep escapes into the open.” - William Broder

As an artist, unafraid to evolve through experimentation, Walnut Creek painter Bill Broder chose
his own path to grow creatively. He has chronicled that journey in a self-published, three-volume
set called "From the Outside In: Books 1 and 2” and "From the Inside Out -- Works on Paper
and Other Experiments."

A sampling of his work spanning five decades, the books intermingle individual pieces and
multiple collections of oils or acrylics, including mixed media. With subjects from chance
encounters, to family members, to near and distant lands, the trilogy demonstrates Broder's gift
for portraiture, landscape, and pure imagination.

Included in the books is one of his earliest oil paintings from the 1950s, a poignant self-portrait
at age 11, completed after he received his first set of oil paints. The portrait is striking as it is an
imagined portrayal of himself as a boy, his hair neatly parted and his head resting in his hand,
observing himself in a mirror as he draws, multiple sketches of himself swirling in the
background. He captured the details of the moment, the emerging hair on his arms and the
baby bottle belonging to his sister.

 

While "Vivie," painted thirty years later, features a young, red-haired woman donned in a royal blue dress, a broad yet accurate portrait detailing a confident woman. The two works show a sincerity of artistic observation, undiminished over the years. Other subjects include family portraits, including "My Wife, Janet,", yet his work is not confined to portraiture, as many of his paintings illustrate scenes from imagination, the fanciful
and the abstract.

"I want to capture the moments of our being face-to-face," Broder says. "The formality of
portraiture gives the observed and the observer time together to evolve. I’m not just painting a
person or a vase; I’m painting the time that it takes to reimagine it, and, in that, I am trying to
capture the activity of the subject. I’m painting a two dimensional object and the third dimension
is time. I’m trying to turn time into a subject or a presence. What I am hoping to capture is not
just the subject, but a likeness that the invisibility of time creates. I am very much aware that
there is a finite moment that I have to do this in- that I cherish above all. I do whatever I can to
have that nuanced expression. Sometimes it can be done better with just a sketch, and
sometimes I try to keep that quality of a sketch, the quick response, in the work.”

Patron Doug Johnson met Broder more than 25 years ago. Johnson initially commissioned him
to paint portraits of several generations of women in his family, including his great-grandmother
and mother. "With the portraits of my family he really captured the character of the person," Johnson says of
Broder. "There's something else there in Bill's paintings that I don't see in portraits by other
artists. It's intuitive, and I really enjoy it."

Born in Manhattan in 1939, Bill considers himself a San Franciscan having grown up there since
age 4 and descending from three generations of San Franciscans. It's not surprising he became
an artist. His mother, Dorothy, studied concert piano and his father, Stephen, experienced
success as a commercial artist. His uncle, painter and muralist William Hesthal, created the
railroad and shipping fresco inside Coit Tower in 1933 through President Franklin D. Roosevelt's
Public Works of Art Project.

Broder describes his style as Fauvist, Neo-Impressionist and as an "Approximist." As a child, he
enjoyed drawing, including doing portraits of his schoolmates and friends. He counts
Michelangelo, Vincent Van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso among his favorite artists. "I'm attempting
to approximate what I see and what I feel," he says. "It always seems to be an approximation. If
I have it exactly, I don't know it -- I'm always reaching for it."

"I liked Michelangelo and da Vinci's drawings more than their paintings. I love the magic of the
line of pencil or pen. I can see that Picasso also had that power in his line. And so with Van
Gogh and all the greats. I wanted to connect with that. I never believed in the afterlife, in a
religious sense, but I didn't want to be ever forgotten. I wanted to do something to become a
part of the history of art of which I thought to be a noble cause in the pursuit of beauty."

After earning a bachelor's of fine arts degree in painting in 1963 from the San Francisco Art
Institute, Bill continued using oil paints for four to five years afterward. Then he made a decision
that symbolized a deliberate choice to remain an artist regardless of his discouragement with oil
paint, which was not getting him anywhere in terms of recognition. Like going from violin to
banjo, Bill had thought acrylics had a perceived stigma of being a substitute for the real thing.
He gave up worrying and being self conscious about using acrylics, which had just started
gaining popularity in the 60’s.

For 10 years after art school, he dabbled with various subjects and media but as he watched
other artists he knew obtain commercial success, Broder says he "felt very sad and
disheartened." At this time he met his future wife Janet at a yoga Christmas party and asked her
if she would like a portrait done of her. When she moved to Walnut Creek, Broder joined her.
The relocation gave his career a fresh direction.

"When I felt the vibe of Walnut Creek, an open door to the surrounding orchards and golden
hills, it was way less intense than San Francisco. I suddenly felt free from that spell. I love the
city and I have to go there," he says. "But I needed a new scene. I was suddenly able to
become involved in plein air. My surroundings in the city were magical and I love the city but
never felt I could paint outside much until I came here."

The resulting work ranged from the personal in "My Backyard" to natural settings in Concord
depicted in "Jeff at Mitchell Canyon," Broder lists the orchards of Cordelia and the Lafayette hills
as some of his favorite spots to paint in Contra Costa County because he says “they are
retreats from the crush, secluded but open.”

In the early 1980s, Broder met Bob Easeley on a construction job where they earned their living.
In addition to being artists, they discovered that each held a passion for painting in the open.
The two set out on a trip to Wales in July 1986, spending a month-and-a-half painting outdoors.
They painted eight hours a day, capturing places including The Mumbles and all up the west
coast. They went from little town to little town. In the end, Broder and Easeley each finished
more than two dozen paintings, including Broder's "Bob Painting at Carmarthen Bay, Wales,"
one of several landscapes.

"It was a very condensed act of making art because we were painting everyday. There was a
great rhythm to it," he recalls. "It was a very fulfilling time. We didn't have to do anything but
paint by day and spend the evenings in pubs. We were doing something central to my being. It
was poetry in motion."

Peter Kraemer, former Sopwith Camel lead singer and owner of Welcome Grant Gallery in
Virginia City, Nev., met Broder in San Francisco in the 1960s. Last November, Kraemer invited
Bill to do several paintings of Virginia City, where he exhibits year-round. He recalls a particular
time during their visit when Bill illustrated his devotion to his art, despite the chilly Nevada
weather.

"He did a painting a day. I remember one large painting he was working on in the garage of a
neighbor's house across the way," Kraemer said. "There was Bill, wrapped in blankets, with his
easel, painting -- you could practically see the icicles on his nose. He's the most passionate, involved artist I know and that shows in his paintings."

Broder's devotion to his craft motivates him to continue to progress artistically.
"I wanted to be a discoverer and an inventor, and in a way that's what I do," he says. "To invent
something that I have never known that I could do, inventing some technique or place within
myself to view things that I haven't been able to see."

All three books are for sale through Bill’s website and their contents are visible at
www.broderart.com .
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