David Kellam Brown

I've always known that creating art was a primal calling for me. After forty years as a creative engineer and "fiddling" with art, I dedicated myself to a full-time art career in 2001 and as a start earned an associate degree in applied art. The appeal of fine art has, however, proven irresistible. I've studied drawing, pastels, and painting at local colleges and with private instructors. Most of my artistic development has been the result of self-directed study of art books, magazines and websites.

I have found great delight in the professional success I have had. Each sale of a piece of my art and each hanging of a new show provides a great sense of personal contact and success in communication.

As a "self taught" artist, I have never been an aficionado of one school or philosophy of art, primarily because I did not know that they existed. Abstractionism, expressionism -- all that stuff -- looked like scribbles to my "uneducated" eye. For decades I drew what I could see and understand straight forwardly. I've always been attracted to work with strong design and illustration quality. When I finally began to seriously study producing art, these basic values and interests grew to have meaning and guided my intentional experimentation.

My artistic heroes have been illustrative or evocative in style such as N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, and Richard Schmid. Certain aspects of other artists and genres have intrigued me such as the French and Russian Impressionists, Henri Matisse, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and recently Robert Genn, Jack Vettriano and Mike Svob.

My art is narrative in style, but I intentionally concentrate on evoking rather than telling a story. I try to create images, moods, and compositions that inspire curiosity and have personal emotional resonance and humor. For these reasons, I stick to very recognizable subjects while attempting to introduce a slight shift of perception that will tease my viewer away from seeing just "another nice picture".

I find that painting pets and their people is a joy filled way to create art. I describe it as "joy filled" in that I get to meet some of my favorite people: dogs, cats, horses and their owners, lovers. The greatest joy, however comes from the reaction of my customers or their loved ones when they place a portrait in their home and it becomes a regular part of their life. I hear from them long after the original creation and sale, telling me directly and through referrals, how much they enjoy their portrait of their "special person".