The Artist's Magazine, January/February 2013

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02 Everett Raymond Kinstler

Master Portrait Painter JUYrVyBQdWJsaWNhdGlvbnMsIEluYyAo SW9sYSBkaXZpc2lvbikPR3JlZ29yeSBL cnVlZ2VyAE7qHvAEMTAuNAI4MAExBVVQ Qy1BDDA3NDgwODAyMzA2NgA= FnL1 04 0120 01 02 03 0 74808 02306 6 Display until January 28, 2013

Dragonﬂ y Bowl (detail, watercolor, 40x30) by Nava Grunfeld

c1_tam0213Cover.indd 1 10/23/12 7:49 AM Ryan S. Brown’s paintings begin as concepts that he envisions down to the most minute detail before his brush touches canvas. true to his VISION BY JUDITH FAIRLY

RYAN S. BROWN DIDN’T grow up with art. He harbored dreams of being a pro athlete or a musician, but he didn’t have what it takes to play professional basketball or the chops to be a rock star. He was creative and he liked to Rmake things. Lifeguarding during the sum- mer when he was 17, Brown passed the time designing his dream house in his

2009 & 2011 ’s head. During his senior year of high TThehe Artist’s Magazine’sMagazine school, he decided to pursue a career ANNUAL in art. attended Brigham Young University (BYU), ART CCOMPETITIONOMPETITION where he majored in illustration. It was in Finalist A Path to Art college that he ! rst encountered the works of At the time, he didn’t understand art contemporary realist Burton Silverman in a very well, but he knew he wasn’t inter- show at the BYU Museum of Art. “" at was ested in a college program that emphasized the ! rst time I realized that you could paint postmodernist approaches. Instead Brown whatever you want,” he says, “and if you do

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 64 10/23/12 8:39 AM ABOVE: Alone In Her Thoughts (oil, 36x48) is a modern like (its “presence”), from how he plans it to how it hangs take on the academic and naturalist traditions of the 19th in a gallery, employs master craftsman Rett Ashby to con- century. Brown uses natural light on the model and on his struct his frames, but Brown himself designs the frames easel most of the time, supplemented by daylight lamps and completes the decorative embellishments such as later in the day during the winter months (see a photo of the sgrafﬁ to in the corners. his studio, page 69). The artist, who likes to control what his painting looks

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 65 10/23/12 8:40 AM Genre Painting it with sincerity, passion and great technical ability, your painting can stand as a work of art Genre art ﬂ ourished in Holland during the early and have an impact on the public.” 17th century because of the bourgeois class’s After he graduated from BYU, Brown left demand for decorative artwork to reﬂ ect its new- for Italy to study at the Florence Academy of found prosperity. The paintings encompassed Art. He found in Italy what had been missing domestic settings and interiors; peasant life; meal- times; celebrations; and tavern, market and street from his university education and began to scenes. Genre painters often infused their compo- unravel the mystery of art, to comprehend its sitions with a degree of moral or social comment. value and its purpose. In general, genre art depicts situations and When he returned to the States, Brown scenes of everyday life. Though genre paintings felt compelled to pass on what he’d learned. span the spectrum of artistic styles, the key fea- For three years, he taught in Los Angeles and ture of a genre painting is that the scene is intro- Utah and began showing his work in galler- duced in a nonidealized way, in contrast to the ies. During this time he also established and traditional classical approach of presenting scenes BELOW: “The per- ran the Classical Drawing Academy in Utah. with heroic, noble or dramatic overtones. fect combination He then completed his studies at the Florence Well-known genre painters include Pieter of nature and man Academy of Art from 2007 to 2008 and after- Brueghel the Elder; Antoine, Louis and Mathieu Le Nain; Jean-François Millet; Thomas Hart Benton; came together,” ward returned to Utah, where he founded says Brown, “to and Norman Rockwell. the Center for Academic Study & Naturalist create a great composition in Tuscan Painting (CAS) in Springville. Countryside Near Brown believes it was inevitable that he Florence, Italy (oil, would open a school. His ambition is to help 16x30). The shape raise the level of discourse about art in the “It’s incredibly expensive to go to an art of this particular manner that the Juilliard School does for music: academy or atelier,” says Brown, who’s still road and the typical to explore the interrelationships between visual paying o# his school debt. His experience in Italian landscape art and the performing arts, between ! ne art Florence set him on a path to make a high- just begged to be and architecture; and to invest his students quality art education more accessible for those painted.” with the zeal to discover what art means. without the means to otherwise attain one.

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 66 10/26/12 1:01 PM ABOVE: Sarah in a Stole (charcoal and white chalk, 30x20) is the developmental drawing that Brown did for The Fox Stole (at right). “I’d never painted fur before, so it was important for me to ﬁ gure out how I would approach it before going to canvas,” he says. “I also wanted to capture the right attitude in the portrait, one that would match the subject’s expression. As it turned out, I believe I achieved a more appropriate facial expression in the painting than in the drawing, but it’s interesting to see what a difference the slightest change in expression can make.”

From Concept to Canvas Brown’s paintings begin with a vision. “I almost always start paintings from my imagination before I ! nd a model or location,” he says. “I have the idea pretty sol- idly in my mind before I start.” He has always form to the way he wants them to look. ABOVE: Brown wanted to have dominion over his surround- “At this point I can also ! gure out what sometimes ﬁ nds clothes in consign- ings, to create his own habitat, to design every- size I want the ! gure to be,” Brown says. “" e ment stores, clothes thing down to the furniture so that things look size of a painting is often determined by the that demand to the way he envisions them. He ! nds inspiration scale of the people and the objects in the com- have their story told. in a variety of sources— from architectural ele- position. " e ! nal ‘presence’ of the painting is The fur in The Fox ments on old buildings to antique shops—and very important to me, and the size and subject Stole (oil, 30x20) often alters things or tweaks them so they con- matter must be balanced in order to create the came from an correct presence for the viewer.” antique store. More After this preparatory process, Brown often, however, he Materials works out the poses for his ! gures, designs discovers it’s easier their costumes and decides on the background to design the cos- Oil paints: Natural Pigments lead white as well elements and the setting. He scouts for models tume, to choose the fabric and to have as other colors; Gamblin and Old Holland colors and locations, as well as objects to use as props. the piece made by a Brushes: Trekell & Company hog bristles; Once he ! nds a model, he works with a master seamstress than to Rosemary & Co mongoose brushes seamstress to make the costume, if necessary. procure something Medium: Natural Pigments Rublev Oil Colours He already knows how he wants it to look—for that matches his Oleogel gel medium, walnut oil example, how the collar frames the face and vision at Old Navy or how long the sleeves should be to sheathe the a resale shop. Text continued on page 71

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 67 10/23/12 8:41 AM Initial Lay-In and Progressive Reﬁ nement BY RYAN S. BROWN

1. First I toned the canvas with a warm brown (Gamblin’s asphaltum and a little ultramarine blue) that I was hoping to preserve in some areas as a subtle transparent element coming through in the ﬁ nal painting. I can’t always preserve the tone (later on I used a thicker, impasto paint, so the undertone isn’t visible here). Then, after the toned canvas was dry, I transferred the ﬁ nal compositional drawing onto it.

2. Next I laid in the sky (at right). I wanted to establish this ﬁ rst for two reasons: so I could key the painting off the sky color and value, and because I was working background to foreground to bet- 1 ter create a sense of depth.

3. I needed to paint the reﬂ ection in the pond at the same 4. Painting the trees and other plants into the sky while it was time I painted the sky, using the same large pile of color, so wet was important so I could create interesting edges. At this the sky and the reﬂ ection would properly correspond. stage I also established color continuity and harmony. I knew the color harmony I was going for because I determined it long before this in the studies I did from life.

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5. I ﬁ nd that all of my preparatory work really pays off. Here you can see, to 6. After I completed the initial lay-in, I had a my left, one of the preliminary ﬁ eld studies I did from life and used for color good idea where the painting was going. It’s reference. important for me to be able to “see” the end as early in the process as possible.

Demonstration continued on the next page

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 69 10/23/12 8:41 AM 7. Next I began to push the initial lay-in to a more structured and ﬁ nished stage, element by element, step by step.

8. Proceeding from the previous stage to the fi nished stage of A Painter’s Inspiration (below; oil, 72x84) was just a matter of isolat- ing each component of the painting and refi n- ing it as much as it needed to be refi ned. Every element has a role to play in the harmony of a painting. If anything in the piece is too sharp or too defi ned, that portion detracts from the greater overall effect. The diffi culty is in bal- ancing all of the elements in order to achieve a refi ned surface while maintaining the integrity of the overall impression. Preserving this bal- ance necessitates constantly stepping back 7 and judging the whole.

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 70 10/26/12 1:02 PM Text continued from page 67 gesture. “Everything evolves as a way of developing a deeper sense of narrative,” he says. He next works on developmental drawings (see Sarah in a Stole, page 67), $ eshing them out until they correspond to his vision. He also works out in thumbnail the abstract arrangements of light and dark masses. From there, the idea will progress to color studies, color schemes and value schemes. He uses pencil to study and to develop ideas, and charcoal for preliminary studies and more ! nished drawings, but for the ! nished painting, he uses oils. When the costume and setting are ready, Brown brings in the model for a photo shoot to work out elements such as the model’s posture, gesture and facial expression; the exact placement of background objects; and the ! nal lighting arrangement. He uses these images to ! nalize the composition, ! ltering out the best of each of the elements to use in a ! nal compositional sketch. Lastly, Brown summons the model for a ! nal color study. He works out the color scheme and the unifying ABOVE: Emily (oil, 24x18) is a painting of one of Brown’s tone that will harmonize the composition and students, done as a demo for other students at the Center for Academic Study & Naturalist Painting (CAS) in Spring- set the mood. “After all of this,” he says, “I can ville, Utah. “I was really just trying to understand how to ! nally get to the canvas and start painting.” achieve more simplicity in my ﬂ eshtones,” says Brown. Telling a Story Brown’s attention to detail in service of the of everyday life (see Genre Painting, page 66). narrative is reminiscent of the way that " e prior generation of connoisseurs dispar- Norman Rockwell approached his work. aged Rockwell as a “mere illustrator,” but some Rockwell, a painter whom Brown counts of today’s art connoisseurs have broken ranks among his in$ uences (alongside John William Waterhouse, Edwin Abbey, Léon Bonnat and others) was heir to a long line of genre paint- What’s in a Frame? ers descended from Pieter Brueghel the Elder, who specialized in storytelling representations “Framing is as important in my process as preliminary studies or my method for layering paint,” says Brown. “I don’t think of it as separate from the painting at all. I want every aspect of the work to support the visual impact and presentation I was hoping to design and achieve for the viewer. Learn More ONLINE This means it’s impossible for me to just pick a frame off the shelf; I design For another of Brown’s informative step-by- all my frames, including any decorative embellishments, and have master step demonstrations, go to www.artists frame maker Rett Ashby construct them for me. As with everything else network.com/learnmore0213. in my work, I like to exercise as much control over this element as possible.”

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 71 10/23/12 8:42 AM BELOW: In An on prevailing opinion. Each of Rockwell’s A Lifelong Education Appreciation (oil, paintings was the product of meticulous prep- Brown sees his role as one of helping to edu- 48x48), Brown is aration of a virtually cinematic mise-en-scène: cate people about art. “" e media are feeding visually responding to a discussion he narrative, composition, props, models, lighting the public a diet of super! cial images,” he says. had with a dealer and movement—and he employed techniques “" ere has to be something deeper from artists. that decided not to gleaned from close study of the masters: chiar- When people become more educated about the take a preparatory oscuro e# ects, impressionistic broken color process of creating art and the e# ort it takes to study along with the and thick, textural brushwork. “Rockwell develop the underlying narrative, they’ll learn ﬁ nal painting made could do it all,” says Brown. “He bridged the to appreciate forms of art that are more nour- from the study. The gap between painting and illustration. He ishing, more demanding and meaningful.” gallery director told could do a painting that was Monet-esque “Galleries sell paintings, but they often him that collec- with the added layer of narrative. His gift don’t educate buyers,” says Brown (see caption tors would think he was in his ability to narrate an idea at a more for An Appreciation, at left and the painting wanted them to buy approachable level for the public.” below). He wants collectors to respect the the same painting twice. Brown argues process, to understand the that studies aren’t e# ort that goes into mak- the same work, that ing a work of art. Each they’re part of a pro- painting is a learn- cess, and that even ing process; the rough sketches artist educates have beauty and value.

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64_tam0213Brown.indd 72 10/23/12 8:42 AM Meet Ryan S. Brown

RYAN S. BROWN founded the Center for Academic Study & Naturalist Painting (CAS) in Springville–Utah, in 2008. The CAS is an Art Renewal Center-approved school; more information about the school can be found at www.cas-utah.com, as well as in the approved atelier listing at www.artrenewal.org. Among Brown’s awards are top honors in the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship Fund and the Art Renewal Center Scholarship and Salon, and also the Award of Exceptional Merit in 2010 at the Portrait Society of America competition. His work is represented by the Principle Gallery (Alexandria, Virginia), M Gallery (Charlestown, South Carolina) and Haynes Gallery (Nashville, Tennessee). Learn more at www.ryansbrown art.com.

ABOVE: “The reason I painted Cassandra” (oil, 11x17), At present Brown is thinking about mov- says Brown, “was just to capture a beautiful woman in a ing his school to Paris. He already has students beautiful pose. There’s not much to it beyond that. Some- and instructors who are interested, but he still times I just like to paint beauty for beauty’s sake.” has a lot of research and planning to do. With a foundation built on the shoulders of the both himself and his audience at the same masters and an unwavering certainty about the time. signi! cance of art in our lives, Ryan Brown is " ese days Brown spends about 70 per- building a legacy that embraces both past and cent of his time at his school. Teaching and future. I painting feed each other; he has to paint if he’s going to teach, and he can’t teach if he doesn’t JUDITH FAIRLY writes about the visual arts. She’s developing a website devoted to the intersection of art and nature. paint. Brown works alongside his students, who are gaining fundamental skills and learn- ing how to draw and paint in a curriculum based on classical academic art instruction. Learn More ONLINE His students range from 18-year-olds For a link to Brown’s slideshow demonstra- straight from high school to professional art- tion on YouTube showing the process for ists in their ’50s. “" e struggle for most stu- another painting, Sonja, go to www.artists dents is to slow down and allow themselves network.com/learnmore0213. the time to develop their skills, to learn to be fair to themselves,” says Brown. “Each one needs to discover the lessons of the journey and to accept that ‘" is is how long it takes for me to do this.’ It’s a lifelong education.”

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