Bryce Brown

Bryce Brown exhibition now showing.

There is ample room in the gallery to view the exhibition while maintaining appropriate social distancing.

Although we are not having our usual exhibtion opening evenings at the moment, we are more than happy to be available for groups of 10 or less, wishing to view the work outside of our normal trading hours.

To make a booking email: ron@exhibitionsgallery.co.nz or phone Ron (021) 062 2072

Venue: Exhibitions Gallery of Fine Art,  20 Brandon Street, Wellington 6011

In art, it’s always good to encourage people to stop looking at the image, just for a moment and to try to consider other elements in the work.

I often find myself telling people about texture, surface, patina, as well as the importance of aesthetics in art. To me, without these things as the first consideration for a painting, it has no appeal. The story, the message, the narrative of the painting might evolve as the work does, or this may also be intentional from the start. And even though the image is important aesthetically, it is also just the vehicle for the paint, or the entry point at which we move on from to discover more.

This is a body of work that has evolved over the last couple of years. It is a good demonstration of a variety of themes that are all linked stylistically through the careful consideration and use of these elements.

As far as themes go, all sorts of things inspire me. For example, the Grape Harvest painting evolved from a previous work, Lavender Harvest which came about simply because I’ve recently found myself using a lot of brilliant violet in my work. Also, I’ve lived rural most of my life, see fields of various things growing in rows which I love the aesthetics of. So these elements all came together in this these works. Grape Harvest became an autumn harvest because I wanted to use these colours, and I then discovered that there is such a thing as an autumn grape harvest. Quite an organic process!

Each of these paintings has it’s own story or reason for being. As each piece comes to be, or shortly thereafter I have a fairly good idea of what it’s about. I have a blog section on my website where I write about each painting (feel free to take a look) and it’s often not until I do this that I actually start to see the story in the work myself. I try to leave this as open as possible though. I think it’s important for the viewer to see their own story in the work also.

I’m thrilled that Exhibitions Gallery are showcasing these paintings and even though this isn’t really an overly cohesive or deliberate body of work, it’s nice to be able to see this grouping of paintings that are a representation of where I am currently as a painter.