Author Al Brown Artist.

A LOOK BACK AT 2021.

Al Brown Artist. 2 Comments

Well this year has been quite an ordeal both on a personal as well as a professional level. As a family we’ve experienced more tragedies than any family should, in my professional life I’ve also experienced great sadness over the year.
Due to this blasted Covid situation I’ve not exhibited due to lack of heart, purpose and commitment; finally after applying I managed to be selected for the Burton Gallery’s Christmas Show. Looking back over some of my recent compositions I can see real progress and growth, at least I now believe I’m going in the right direction with regard to painting and artistic confidence.
A highlight of the year has been walking the South West Coast Path from Ilfracombe to Combe Martin and on a warm, idyllic summer’s day managed to sketch Broadsands Beach; the finished painting is at the top of this post. Another highlight was walking the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall where I’ve managed to paint a few images of the wonderful storms and light experienced there, these have now been successfully sold.
I’ve a few projects already lined up for 2022 including a reunion of the Black Arts with an organised residential course. I’m looking towards a more abstract way of working and perhaps arranging a few solo exhibitions. Let’s hope 2022 is going to be a partial return to the way we used to live and love. Peace for you all in the next year! Al

BLACK ARTS.

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

The return of BLACK ARTS, a project I’m involved in with artists Adrian Beasley and Stephen Raff.  We create our images in black and white using Photography, the Wet Collodian process and use of Bideford Black pigment, hence the name BLACK ARTS.  We aim to undertake this three day residential experience later this year.  Below is a link to the webpage with more information to follow!

https://www.black-arts.art/

Below is a link of our first collaboration in 2019 on the closing night of The White Moose Gallery.
https://albrownartist.com/2019/11/02/last-night/

NEVER FORGET THE DAY!

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

A wonderful poem and video by Dr Emma Fisher, an anaesthetist, who I have had the pleasure of working with at North Devon District Hospital. As a registered Staff Nurse who works in the Operating Theatre Department I have worked with Dr Fisher and many of the healthcare practitioners featured in my sketches in this video. This poem sadly describes one profound experience a team had to deal with during this Covid Crisis!
Below is a link to the original pen and ink images.

https://albrownartist.com/2020/12/31/the-end-of-a-stressful-2020-a-collage-of-work-colleagues-at-nddh/

Roborough Hill.

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

I’ve finally mounted this Bideford Black painting of Roborough Hill in Barnstaple, North Devon 40 x 25″ on thick cartridge paper. Throughout the pandemic and various lockdowns I’ve found this area of Roborough to have been a great escape from all that mayhem. To look out over North Devon from this wonderful highpoint is a view to behold. I think this painting would be certainly a talking or focal point to any room! Al

A Night in Bodmin Jail.

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

My wife and I spent a wonderful time in Bodmin Jail.  This jail has been fully renovated to accommodate a four star hotel.  We spent the night in the Naval Wing in room 125.

Within the Jail’s walls is the only working Victorian Gallows in the UK and has claimed the lives of 55 prisoners.  Each of the Hotel’s rooms has a plaque of an inmate who spent time there, ours was John Hoskins who stole of bushel of wheat and walked into the fresh air for the last time on the 11th August 1796.  The prison closed in 1927.
Here is a video on my YouTube channel  https://youtu.be/bz3Gx402co0 

A visit to Padstow & Rock for inspiration.

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

I took an early morning walk along the quay in Padstow and it was wonderful to see the boats coming in during a quiet sunrise. Below is St Enodoc Church just a fifteen minutes walk out of Roc, the spire is actually that bent. On the way there we fed a tame robin by hand, the poet laureate Sir John Betjeman is buried here too. To get to Rock you have to take the ferry from the quay at Padstow which takes you across the River Camel giving you views out to the Doombar and down the Estuary.

We stayed two nights at The Old Custom House in the harbour and from our window had marvellous views out over Padstow and across to Rock; who needs a television or iPhones when you have such a view. It was wonderful to see Padstow without the throngs of tourists and after four at night was almost a ghost town. We ate at Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant and Paul Hainsworth’s Caffe Rojano and The Mariners at Rock, we had superb meals with friendly staff at all.