ian brown

My early interest in portraiture came from my love of the portraits and self-portraits of Van Gogh. I admired his simple composition, use of bold flat colour, and limited perspective. The more idiosyncratic aspects of my painting are derived from my study of Illusionism in art, specifically Trompe l’oeil. I take a keen interest in pop art collage, in particular the work of Peter Blake.

In recent years I have studied David Hockney’s texts referring to the use of lenses in art, Ingres use of camera lucida, and more importantly for myself, Vermeer’s use of the camera obscura.

Although I consider my paintings to be ‘modern’ in appearance I hope the mood, light and nature of my work comes from my study of the Dutch ‘golden age’ of painting. I have made repeated trips to the Netherlands to study at first hand the works of Frans Hals, Peiter de Hooch and Rembrandt. My main inspiration at the moment is the intimate domestic scenes painted by Johannes Vermeer.

Initially many people merit my work within the realms of photo-realism, however my aim is to go beyond merely capturing the subject likeness in a moment of time. I hope that through intense study, and the familiarity and interaction I have with my sitters, that I can capture some thing of their nature which is beyond their physicality.