Jessica Brown
Jessica Brown is a contemporary abstract painter creating heartfelt, layered abstract paintings from her studio in Warwickshire. Her work is much inspired by the idea of our journey through life, the connections that we make and the traces we leave behind.
Words by Jessica Brown &Photography by Sally Crane
I was lucky to have a very outward-looking childhood. My father was an academic and we often had students and university professors from all over the globe staying in our home and giving us a wider perspective on the world. When I was five, we moved from the southwest of England to Birmingham and I remember at that time we had a ‘making-box’ full of art and craft materials - I loved making things from that box!
As a teenager, my family moved to Vienna, Austria for a year, where I attended the local school. I knew practically no German, so I had to learn fast! Painting and drawing were always my favourite things to do, but it was in Vienna, that I learned to love art galleries, such as the famous Belvedere Museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Kunst Haus. I was able to stand in front of the work of so many amazing Austrian artists.
I remember around that time I was looking at a piece of abstract art with my mum, and I told her that I could do something like that, and she said, “why don’t you then”. I’ve never forgotten that - it reminds me that one of the most important things about a painting practice is to get on and do it. Just keep making the work.
As you can see, I’ve loved art and painting from a young age. However, it wasn’t until after a detour, which involved obtaining a BA Hons degree in German from Manchester University, that I returned to my true passion of painting, and enrolled as a mature student of Fine Art at Birmingham City University. While I was still a student, I approached a local gallery and they agreed to show my work. I can still remember the joy I felt at selling my first painting. It’s such an honour when someone chooses a piece of my work for their home or office, and I still feel the same sense of joy and gratitude whenever one of my paintings finds a new home.
That first sale led to a wonderful, successful relationship with that gallery which lasted for many years and gave me the confidence to work with other galleries. After leaving art college I continued to sell my work through galleries around the UK, and took part in numerous solo and joint exhibitions. Over the years, I’ve continued with my own creative study, attending courses and workshops on various aspects of painting, which have all developed my practice and fed into I what I make today.
I’m an abstract artist creating heartfelt, many-layered abstract paintings. I’m inspired by shape and colour, spontaneity and structure, and what’s seen and what’s not seen. I often use recognisable elements such as boats, or bridge shapes, flowers, star constellations, or some text. At the moment, I’m using fragments of vintage maps in my work. Although these elements appear in an abstract context, they retain echoes of meaning which tell a story to the viewer.
My paintings are the result of many layers of adding and subtracting. I’m constantly considering what needs to stay and what needs to go. I use a range of materials: mainly acrylic paint, but also pencil, pastels and collage, building up paintings layer by layer in an organic way. Through my process of adding and subtracting, burying some elements and bringing others to the fore, a rich history is created, which I hope has an emotional connection with the viewer. I continue working until I feel harmony and balance have been achieved and the image has been “found”.
I am inspired by the idea of our journey through life. Along the way, we make connections with people and places, we take this, or that path; we lose and gain things and leave traces behind. There are flowers and there are sunsets, but also disappointments and scars - it all adds up to where we are today.
I love connecting with people through my work. Nearly 200 of my paintings now live in the homes of collectors in this country and abroad. I get so many heartfelt notes from people who buy my work telling me how much the paintings mean to them - that connection is everything to me.
As Robert Motherwell said: “What could be more interesting, or in the end, more ecstatic, than in those rare moments when you see another person look at something you’ve made, and realise that they got it exactly, that your heart jumped to their heart with nothing in between.”
Photo by Jessica Brown
