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Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Emily Brown "Realistic landscape, which the ignorant believe to be one of the easiest forms of painting, is actually one of the most inaccessible, one in which success is rarest and most precarious." - Sir Kenneth Clark, Landscape into Art "I never saw an ugly thing in my life." - Constable When Emily Brown paints a landscape, she starts with the sky. It's laid in all at once, specific, clear, translucent. The sky determines the light of the whole, the light establishes the tenor. Later, she may negotiate changes in color tonalities or densities. But the overwhelming "feel" of a scene is resolved at the onset. Everyone creates order for themselves out of the unsorted material of life. As a painter, Brown acknowledges this subjective preference and picks views and moments which coincide with her varying moods. Most usually, she works in the presence of the land. Three Trees, Fairmount Park, for example, was finished in six weeks of on-site sessions. An exception is Christie House at Night, which was painted indoors from memory. In a few of her recent works, people appear. Eschewing grand or romantic presentations of nature's magnificent wilds, Brown favors inhabited land, where the after trail of a jet or an orderly garden plot cues us to the presence of humans. Brown thoughtfully presents our environment as a courteous expanse, at once curved and continuous yet sliced across by manmade edges. These intense and personal smallscale paintings possess a power far larger than their size might suggest. Judith Stein
The natural world is a source for the spirit: the effect of light on a particular place can be exhilarating; close contact with familiar terrain can comfort. I have strong feelings about certain places and work to convey them to others. At times conscious metaphors arise to indicate an inner state. Other times the metaphors enter without conscious decision. The starting place is always in the landscape. Emily Brown
Checklist 1. Perry Pond, 1979 2. Jet Trails, 1976 3. Community Garden, 1980 4. Mr. Littlefield's Farm Pond, 1981 5. Tree, Laurel Hill West, 1981 6. Foot Bridge, Belfast, Maine, 1981 7. Both Bridges, Belfast, Maine, 1981 8. Christie House at Night, 1982 9. Buildings and Children, Walpack, 1982 10. Three Trees, Fairmount Park, 1982 11. Three Trees, Maine, 1982 12. Apple Tree, 1982 13. Red Farm, 1982 14. Pine, Cloudy Day, 1982 15. Running Girl, 1982 16. Main Street, Belfast, Maine, 1981 18. Kittatinny Blue Sky, 1982 19. Kittatinny Pond, 1982 20. Levenseller Mt., 1980
Artist Biography Brown has shown in several group shows in the past four years in Philadelphia, New York, Belfast, ME, and Vineyard Haven, MA. Her first solo exhibition was at the Eric Makler Gallery, Philadelphia, in 1980. In the Spring of 1982, Brown was Artist Residence at the Artists for Environment Foundation, Walpack Center, New Jersey, where she is currently teaching. She was a founding member of the Third Street Gallery, Philadelphia, an artist run cooperative.
The Morris Gallery displays the work of outstanding contemporary artists with a connection to Philadelphia, determined by birth, schooling or residence. A committee composed of area artists, museum personnel and collectors, and the curatorial staff of the Academy chooses the exhibitions. Currently serving on the Morris Gallery Exhibition Committee are: Murray Dessner, Anne d' Harnoncourt, Jennie Q. Dietrich, Janet Kardon, Charles Mather III, Dr. Perry Ottenberg, David Pease, Jody Pinto, Acey Wolgin; and Academy staff Frank Goodyear, Kathy Foster, Linda Bantel, Judith Stein. Copyright Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1982 |