Travelling all the way from Galloway, Davy Brown paid a visit to ScotlandArt Gallery in the run-up to his solo exhibition 'Davy Brown: Escape Into Colour.' We spoke to Brown about his upbringing in Kilmarnock, time spent with the St. Ives group, and his unique colourist sensibilities.
On his studio wall, Davy Brown has a quote from Picasso: “Painting is stronger than I am. It makes me do its bidding.” Indeed, painting has been something of a North Star for Brown throughout his life.
"I knew at the age of four I was going to be an artist at some point." Born in Kilmarnock in 1950 to an electrician in the local coalmines, art came naturally to Brown. As a child he passed time in his grandfather's wallpaper shop and signwriting business, creating his own wallpaper designs on gridded maths paper. Following his father's footsteps into the great open-cast mines of Ayrshire was never an option. Brown had art school in his sights, and his father's oft-repeated advice to "Get a collar and tie job" rang in his ears. In 1968 Brown was accepted to the Glasgow School of Art (GSA).
Brown's works are distinctive for their rich, considered colouring, which has only become more sensitive over the years. Attending the art school in the late 60s and early 70s, Brown became disillusioned with the dour grey and brown fashionable amongst tutors at the GSA of the time. This penchant for the monochrome was inspired by the subdued works of Joan Eardley but perhaps lacked the flashes of red or blue that lifted Eardley's palette. Tutors would not attend lectures given by Eduardo Paolozzi and David Hockney, artists more interested in colour.
During this time, Brown's use of colour became "a very conscious thing" on his part. He considers colour relationships carefully, working from the colour wheel (which has no black, grey or brown). Contrast is important: for instance, the yellow and violet that create such a glowing sense of solitude in 'Poinsettia on a Yellow Table' are on opposite sides of the colour wheel.
'Poinsettia On a Yellow Table.' Oil, 2024.
In 1969, Brown made his first visit to St Ives. This was the beginning of a twelve-year period during which he would pass a few weeks each summer in Cornwall, absorbing the artistic influence of the St Ives group. Coffee with Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham was a regular affair. "She liked young people. Her work, even her later work, was always very youthful." The two would keep in touch in letters for years afterwards.
For a time during his studies, Brown saw himself moving to London to "try the starving artist in a garret thing." However, following the loss of his father in his third year at GSA, Brown's mother encouraged him to train as a teacher. Resistant at first, he went ahead. "Unfortunately, I discovered that I liked it." Thus followed thirty years as an art teacher in Scottish schools. Brown took his role - that of instilling passion for the subject in his students - seriously. "A prerequisite to be a teacher is to be passionate... I like to think I had some influence on a generation."
It was while teaching that Brown moved to Dumfries and Galloway, which remains his home.
Its "unspoilt" coastal villages, rolling hills, and ramshackle farmhouses frequently appear in his work in careful abstraction and considered tones. It's their wildness, however, that attracts Brown. "I like wilderness... I like the idea that if I set off in a northerly direction from where I am, dressed as I am, I would die."I think I'm trying to get order into what looks like chaos."
'A Galloway Farm Track.' Oil, 2024.
Brown left teaching in 2002 to focus on his own career as an artist. Working for a time in a more realist, representational style, thirteen years ago his life and practice underwent a significant change. A burst aorta led to a six-month spell in hospital, during which the artist died seven times in a matter of weeks. During this period, he was unable to make paintings, and following his recovery, his style emerged with the same intuitive sense for colour, but with greater abstraction. It is works from the past year (2024) of this most recent, more stylised period that we are delighted to show in our exhibition 'Davy Brown: Escape Into Colour.'
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