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In contrast to the case of many other painters, Jean-Marie Bijtebier never bases his paintings on photographic or other visual material, nor on perceptible reality.  Boom (Tree) is born out of stray memories and experiences as freely interpreted visually by the artist.  Just as its source, the image too remains indistinct, constructed from hazy 'stains' that go to suggest the shape of a tree.

Bijtebier applies a thin layer of paint to the rough, unprepared linen, whereby he leaves certain parts of the canvas unpainted.  The original brown linen tints thus co-determine the painting's appearance.  Further, Boom is composed from a color palette that is sober, ranging from gray-green to gray-blue with a few black accents.  Light-beige tints create an unreal, dreamlike aura around the tree.

Bijtebier thins his paint by adding a medium to it.  The linen of the unprepared canvas is thus deeply impregnated by application of the very thinned-out layer of paint.  This working method is strongly related to that of watercolor on paper, a technique that was very popular by Romantic painters of the 19th century.  It is also then not surprising that the artist counts William Turner as a major source of inspiration.  There is not only a technical similarity, but also a thematic one, with nature, cosmos and mystery as the basic ingredients for making of Bijtebier a neo-Romantic.

Bijtebier relates to paint the way that a poet does so with words.  He goes in search of a 'correct' translation of his vision of the world, and wherein a sense of wonder often plays the leading role.  Just as a poet chooses words with infinite care, Bijtebier places his signs sparingly on the canvas.  Boom is - in contrast to what one may think at first glance - not constructed in an accidental of impulsive way, but rather is the result of deep, well-considered reflection.   

The scarcity of color, paint and signs lend the piece a distilled character.  Boom is a stilled, intimist, dreamlike image, containing at once something of the unreal and the universal.