Jeffrey Becom

*Painted Villages of Ecuador

Geometry of Color, Saraguro
Green Adobe, Cotacachi
Old Sombrero, Saraguro
Pink Wall, Guamote
Orange Door, Latacunga
Twin Steps, Cañar
Orange Crest, Riobamba
Minotaur, Sasquisili
After Market Day, Saquisili
Blue Lintel, Sigsig

Arquitecto

Ofrendas de Azucar
Anyellita
Casa Del Mayor

Central & South America

La Hormiguita, Guatemala
Pintura Aspada, Guatemala
Piedra Pintada, Guatemala
Azul y Rojo, San Juan Ostuncalco, Guatemala
La Cantina, Guatemala
Embroiderer’s Hands, Guatemala
La Hormiguita, Guatemala
Casa Flamante, Momostenango, Guatemala
Yellow Lintel, Llama, Santa Barbara, Honduras
Boy with Iguana, Kilometro, Honduras

India

Pink Door
Shoes, Chandla, Madhya, Pradesh, India
White Goat, Bangra, Uttar, Pradesh, India
Bangles Shop, Nagaur, Rajasthan, India
Blue Passage, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
Bangles Shop, Nagaur, Rasthan, India
Tiger Wall, Pokarun, India
Signs of Good Fortune
Tin Awning
Red Pillars

Mediterrean Color (Europe)

Painted Boats, Burano, Italy
Wall With Deck Chairs, Burano, Italy
Blue Steps, Kalymnos, Greece
Blue Alcove, Orvieto, Italy
Yellow Wall, Pisa, Italy
Wall With Roses, Obidos, Portugal
Gypsy House, Chanca, Almeria, Spain

Mexico

Pink Pig and Painted Walls, Mexico
Fachada Rosa, Chiapas, Mexico
Colores Y Sombras, Michoacan, Mexico
Three Green Pillars, Tabasco, Mexico
Tres Lanchas, Xochimilco, Distrito Federal, Mexico
Painted Drapery, Veracruz, Mexico
Pink Awning, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Painted Arcade, Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, Mexico
Casa de Pollos, Mexico
Offrenda Verde, Mexico

Peru

El Pintur, Peru
House of the Music Teacher, Peru
Green Door with Arch, Peru
Rastro del Diluvio, Peru
Sombrero, Peru
Flower Vendor, Peru
Puerta Azul, Peru
Carved Lintel, Peru
Diamantes
Intersecting Colors

Jeffrey Becom has been a life-long painter with formal training as an architect.
Jeffrey Becom has a magnificent sense of color and form and applies them to his vision of facades, homes, churches and tombs in the environment in which he is currently trying to document with his camera.

Born in a small Indiana farming community in 1953, Jeffrey Becom painted from an early age. He began to develop his photographic skills while earning a degree in architecture from the University of Cincinnati. After moving to San Francisco to practice, Becom opted out of an architectural career to immerse himself in a private obsession: observing, studying and recording with camera and paintbrush the wondrous color and detail of the simple houses of farmers and fishermen in remote Mediterranean villages and hill towns.

Combining an architect’s love of geometry, pattern and texture with a painter’s sensitivity to color, light and composition, Becom spent a decade creating the series of photographs collected in his first book, Mediterranean Color (Abbeville Press, New York, 1990), with Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Paul Goldberger. This book documents with camera and words, the fascinating history as well as myths behind the remarkable colors on the simple houses of farmers and fishermen. Becom’s work has also been showcased in “For the Colors”, an hour-long PBS (public television) documentary joining him in Italy in 1991. In 1993 Becom had a retrospective exhibition of oils, watercolors and photographs at The Octagon’s American Architectural Foundation galleries in Washington, D.C.

Jeffrey Becom continues to divide his time equally between work in his studio and more recently, extensive travels throughout Mexico and Central America. Maya Color (Abbeville Press, New York, 1997), co-authored with his wife, Sally Jean Aberg, was conceived when Becom began to wonder why so many cemeteries in Southern Mexico are painted blue and green. This curiosity led him and Sally on a journey of eight years’ inquiry and research into the painting traditions of the living Maya. They grew to know a remarkable culture whose sacred colors are not merely a matter of preference but a powerful statement of belief stretching all the way back to their ancient painted pyramids. This new book documents the beauty as well as the power within the colorful traditions of Latin American architecture.

Jeffrey Becom’s limited edition Ilfachrome (i.e. cibachrome) photographs, as well as his watercolors and oil paintings, are represented in public and private collections throughout the world.

 

 

Painted Villages of Ecuador