John Gary Brown

As a student I explored a number of different mediums including watercolor, intaglio, and relief painting, as well as drawing with a variety of materials; but by the time I received my MFA from the University of Washington it was obvious that oil painting would be my medium of choice.  Similarly, forays through different subject matter and points of departure had led me, inevitably, back to the landscape.

            The landscape allows me to create worlds that reflect my view of reality- that the universe evolves in an unhurried but inexorable process that deserves respect and emulation.  The implications of this point of view could be superimposed onto spiritual or ecological considerations, but I prefer to simply depict the landscape in placid or dynamic states, and celebrate each manifestation as a natural and inevitable reflection of a broader and mystical reality that must be taken on faith.

            My paintings, although basically non-objective, are nearly always organized around a horizon line, or some other element that places the image in a particular place. There is often a light source or an implication of one. The horizon is sometimes superimposed onto vertical activity of a more transitory nature, at times suggesting the firmly planted underpinnings of an icon painting.  It also owes some debt of gratitude to modern masters such as Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhart, who had similar feelings of reverence for the always changing but eternal nature of the cosmos.

            The stark, infinite prairie was the first landscape that I felt a spiritual attachment to, but after moving to Seattle to do my graduate work, I also learned to appreciate the elusive Northwestern surroundings, with their ambiguous merging of land, water and atmosphere. After traveling and working in Europe, I learned to love the more ordered European environment and, later, the decayed, full-circle magic of Middle Eastern sites, which seem to reflect both the beginning and the end of earth’s cycles. My latest efforts have, to some extent, abandoned the natural world and looked inward, toward a landscape of dreams and meditation.

            I endeavor to create subjective interpretations of specific places or experiences, using light, color, and configurations to suggest each outward manifestation. Nature forces, such as wind and water currents, may be implied or depicted. Celestial events share the canvas with unseen or microscopic phenomena, but overseeing each event or circumstance is the turning of the earth ad the long march toward entropy and rebirth. 

            My paintings are executed in layers. A surface of free-flowing, multi-colored under painting is applied by brush and then allowed to form organic shapes before the canvas is placed on the floor, face up, so it will stabilize and dry. After this surface is dry enough to work over, new layers of pigment are laid over it, mostly with a rubber print brayer. Some areas of paint are wiped off with a paint rag, revealing the color beneath, providing the luminosity of an image lit from within. Drawn elements are worked into the mix, using a brush or the edge of the brayer, and this process is repeated several times until the painting is finished.

            I believe man’s marks upon the earth are superficial and fleeting, and I try to depict and celebrate what is truly elemental in the landscape- the breathing of life into great watery vistas, seen through shifting, atmospheric veils, or the falling of sunlight onto undisturbed dust. Many of the canvases are named for places and circumstances brought about by the creativity of mankind, but the dominate feature in each one is the celestial process.