Emily Brown

I have painted for decades in the landscape, both rural and urban. Out of doors one can find respite from a measured existence, and renewal through connections with the conditions and rhythms of the natural world. Too, one is at the mercy of the shifts of weather and seasons.

Working increasingly in my studio beginning in 1995, I experimented extensively for several years, trying new media, grounds, imagery and scale. Recently, I have largely relied on the risky run together of Sumi ink and water, and the responsiveness of different papers. A vocabulary of aqueous brush marks continues to build as the large pages are becoming increasingly filled with selections of textures found in nature.

Since 1998, my focus has been on the poetry found through the material and a specific natural subject. I wish my work to be easily accessible. I am glad to have found relatively universal imagery: simple surfaces, selections of foliage and grounds of earthy materials. Some of the results are intentionally meditative in their character; others are jazzy, sensuous and emotionally expressive. I mean to bring feelings and thoughts to mind while celebrating the vital, natural world we can so easily overlook.