Artist Analysis - Zachary Brown

Zachary Brown

Zachary Brown is an abstract contemporary artist who primarily uses acrylics onto canvas (sometimes uses different unconventional mediums to otherwise use for different textures) to create colourful work with a variety of different images and textures to make you think about the meaning behind the piece itself. He believes the creation of work is more important than the money or fame, and his work is his passion. He often does not plan on his work which makes his work very free and spontaneous because he just does what he feels right at the time. Due to this, his works are very unique and often weird or crazy in the eyes of those who do not study the piece for long enough. The work comes from deep within himself, expressing his thoughts and feelings on canvas which makes the work very thoughtful and fluid. His works have been featured in many exhibitions, and magazines. For example, his work “Shimmer” was displayed in the Garden Gallery at King’s Bridge in Atlanta on January 2009, and he’s been featured as an artist in 2008 in the magazine Artscene. Due to his work being very spontaneous, there is no real meaning behind his work, just the feelings he had experienced during the time.

This piece of work titled ‘Baby its Cold Outside’ was created from acrylic and mixed media atop of a wood panel. Here is quite a cold colour scheme, with a gradient ranging from black at the bottom to dark blue to light blue, with several shades in between. The way of which the colours were blended are not very smooth, perhaps to give the rough texture the piece has. The lines it was blended between shades would represent snow, as it looks quite jagged, the way snow lands. However the light blue is much jagged as it turns into white, which could represent mountains. This tells the viewer that the piece could be representing a cold landscape, as if it was the middle of winter and it was covered in snow. Snow to people could represent different thoughts. Some could think it was a happy connotation, due to the fact that white can represent pure, innocent and safety, which is mainly a positive connotation of the colour. Others can see it more harsh and negative, due to the cold and snow being very dangerous to a few who are vulnerable. Because of the vast amount of meanings in the piece, it gives the piece the ability to let the viewer open up their own opinion of the piece, where they can discuss it with others, who may have different views. I feel this was originally the artists’ intention. I personally take both views in consideration, as winter can be pure and happy for those families to get together. However, it can get dangerous for those vulnerable to the cold and diseases. Zachary Brown also uses a rough texture by scratching into the acrylic, creating the harsh, 3D looking lines scattered around the painting.

Zachary Brown uses quite a variety of scale in his work as he is very flexible. The scale of which he works on range from 10” x 10” to 48” x 36”. He mostly creates layers of acrylic paint, with different mediums and surfaces such as mixed media and wood panels which creates an often rough texture, paired with his usual scratching of acrylic paint to create a 3D, layered texture. Zachary Brown doesn’t often use a different variety of lines, but the ones he does use are usually rough and quick, being etched into the work so it doesn’t come out smooth or very controlled. He also doesn’t use much tone as most, if not all, of his work is primarily block colour. However, the way he blends colour is not also necessarily smooth, the whereabouts of where he switches paint tone is usually shown by the rough lines he’s painted with the colour. He usually uses a lot of colour, not always in a certain colour scheme like most abstract artists. His work is very spontaneous and he usually does whatever he feels so it’s not always the same colour scheme depending on how he feels. The connotations he usually portrays with his work is positive, as its mostly bright vibrant colours to catch the viewer’s attention.

He works on his piece often unplanned. He does whatever his mind is set to at the time giving him the opportunity to change things or add new things to his work. He occasionally plans for his pieces, but the way he mostly works is very unordered and not the same every time.

I find him inspiring due to how he’s used textures and the scratching to create a rough and sharp line. I feel I could use this technique of the scratching of paint in my work to create a layer in my work so it isn’t always just flat and perhaps use it in a way that could represent broken in the piece. I think I can do this by controlling the scratching to create cracks in the acrylic paint.