Renowned National Artist, comes home to his family roots

Story and photo by Michael Pearce

Phil Bob Borman’s days often begin shortly before daylight on a bend of the Brazos River, a mug of coffee in one hand, as he strokes the fur of his dog, an Australian shepherd named Penni Pearl.

Borman can sit so silent and still, his mind often deep into prayer, that he seems to become part of the landscape as bald eagles fly overhead and schools of minnows cruise the shallows a few feet away.

When his eyes open from his prayer session, Borman watches steam rise from the water, taking in every detail as the rising sun slowly paints the towering, jagged cliffs across the river in the kind of brilliant, glowing daylight that comes with the first minutes of sunrise. To him, scattered clouds look as white as snow and as fluffy as cotton.

“It’s probably the most beautiful place I’ve seen,†Borman said. “I always knew I belonged back here. This place has everything in this world that’s important to me.â€

“This place†is where, growing up, he often roamed as free as the Comanche Indians did when his family first arrived in the Palo Pinto mountains 150 years ago. It’s where he developed a deep appreciation for the outdoors and honed his belief in a higher power.

For most of his 60 years, the constants in Borman’s life have been a devotion to his family, a fervent love of God, and a yearning to be amid nature and art.

Borman is a nationally known landscape painter and Western sculptor, and the road he’s taken to the pinnacle of his career has been long, diverse and filled with plenty of turns.

He was raised mostly in Dallas, and his trails through life led to an art degree from Sul Ross University. In the ensuing years, he was a cowboy poet and singer-songwriter.

His days almost ended, though, as a government trapper of problematic coyotes and mountain lions. A mountain lion had pulled a trap into a horrible thicket, and Borman had no choice but to crawl in.
“I heard the rattle of the trap and chain, looked up and there it was,†said Borman, shaking his head a bit as he retold the story. “It made a swipe with a front paw that passed so close, I felt the air on my face.â€
Borman said he quickly ended the confrontation with shots from his Colt revolver.

Later, as an ordained minister, he was a circuit preacher, and he also fought forest fires in New Mexico. Additionally, Borman worked as a cowboy at several well-known ranches across the American West.
Through all those years, he continued his love of creating Western art. Eventually, a higher authority convinced him it was time to go full time into sculpting and painting.

Borman said his artistic calling came to him during a prayer.

“One day the Lord told me it was time to be an artist, pursue it to the fullest,†Borman said. “I got to thinking, when I got older it would be a heck of a lot easier to get out of bed and walk to a studio than to saddle up and check newborn calves in a blizzard.â€

Borman said it took 35 to 40 years – and several thousand prayers – to refine his craft to where it is now. His sculptures sell well, and one in particular was purchased by a member of England’s royal family, but his specialty is painting the broad landscapes and skyscapes of the American West.

“I honestly want to show God’s glory in every painting I do,†Borman said. “The Lord gave me so many wonderful experiences in so many wonderful places. I want to share that one skyscape or landscape at a time.â€

Any livestock, wildlife or people depicted in his paintings are tiny. Borman said it’s a reminder of where they are in comparison to God’s creations.

Since becoming a full-time artist, Borman has lived in a variety of locations known for their art scenes in the West and Southwest. Last year he and his wife, Deanna, came back to the Palo Pinto Mountains to help his aging mother and father. His father has since passed.

Since they arrived, he has found an inner peace that’s helped him personally and professionally, and his wife didn’t have to ask twice if they should settle on his family’s land.

Borman’s studio is an old garden shed erected near his mother’s house, and his wife handles the business end of selling art. They plan on building their “happily ever after†home nearby.

Borman said walking the same trails he did as a child helps him clear his mind of “painter’s block†and find inspiration, and the prayers come as easily to him as they did half a century ago.

For Borman, his days seem to go much better when he starts at the bend of the Brazos, a short walk from his studio, and on a recent morning the temperatures were in the low 20s. Bundled in wool and sipping hot coffee, he sat through the entire show of sunshine spreading up the valley.

Soon after, he had a paintbrush in hand at his studio – and that finished painting sold the day after it arrived at a gallery in Fredericksburg.

“I’ve been blessed to see so many beautiful places in my life,†Borman said. “But, in the end, I’m back where I belong.â€

More information about Borman’s art can be found at philbobbormanfineart.com. He also can be found on Facebook and Instagram.