Now on view | Trailside Galleries

Alive in the Landscape

Trailside Galleries’ Ryan Brown aims to tell stories with figures in his landcapes.

Now available at Trailside Galleries is work from new gallery artist Ryan Brown, who uses both figures and landscapes to offer insight into the beauty of the West. The artist, who lives and works in Springville, Utah, tells both grand and small stories using people framed within the vastness of nature. November, oil linen, 22 x 40”

“For a long time, I was guilty of finding a good location with a good model with a good pose. The paintings would be great, but they didn’t tell any stories. Lately I’ve been trying to use a bit more narrative about why the figure is out there,” Brown says. “I want the work to have more purpose than just a pretty model in a pretty setting. And this is why I’m enjoying these combinations of figures and landscapes. They have a different quality over just a pure landscape. They are also more difficult to create.”1862 Colt Sheriff’s Model, oil on linen, 14 x 18”

Desert Nocturne, oil on linen, 30 x 30”

Brown says that he especially enjoys showing his figures rendered almost miniature by the vastness of nature itself. You can see this quality in works such as Vantage Point, where a woman walks over a ridgeline with a huge river valley behind her, and Among the Giants, a work showing a different figure looking up at a massive redwood tree. “The largeness of the world we live in is fascinating,” he adds.

Another quality of Brown’s newest works: a diversity of subjects. He has his figures-in-nature paintings, but also regular landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and works that would be classified as more classical figurative images.Vantage Point, oil on linen, 40 x 30”“I do like to have an amalgamation of work, which is why I work sometimes randomly. I’ll finish a landscape and then do a seascape and then cherry blossoms…it’s fun painting whatever interests me,” he says. “I’m a huge Michael Jordan fan and one thing that was said about him was he had no weaknesses. It makes me think of artists I like: John William Waterhouse, John Singer Sargent, Julien Dupré…these artists painted whatever they wanted and they were very adaptable.”