From left, 'Water is Life' - oil on canvas, 1994, and 'Sleeping Queen' - acrylic on canvas, 2003
Sana Rose, Contributor
HIS NAME is synonymous with music. With four albums under his belt, hit songs such as My Father, My Friend, Love People, All Fall Down and When You Love as well as an illustrious career as a cabaret singer, A. J. Brown has made a name for himself in the performing arts.
On December 18, however, it was not his musical prowess that was on show but rather his talent in the visual arts. Brown's first solo exhibition, Renaissance which is currently being hosted by the Pegasus Gallery in New Kingston, is a mix of paintings of various subjects and themes from portraiture still life and landscape to music, Jonkunnu culture and family values from figuration to abstraction.
VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS
Brown, blessed with talent for both the visual and performing arts, seemed at first, to veer towards the former at the secondary school level but was able to do both at the same time when he attended the Cultural Training Centre (CTC) which has been renamed Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. What must have been a rigorous schedule consisted of art classes from Mondays to Fridays and cabaret performances on weekends at north coast hotels. He graduated from CTC with a diploma in Graphic Design but by then music had taken centre stage in his life and continued to be so.
He experienced visual art renaissance when in 1989, his application for the Pratt Institute in New York was accepted. At the same time his application came through, he was offered a job at the Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and an opportunity to study at the University of Las Vegas (UNLV). The latter offer proved irresistible as Brown was caught between two minds yet again. He enrolled in the painting course at UNLV as there was no graphic designing programme there and proceeded to perform another balancing act with both music and art. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from UNLV in 1993 and up to 1996 was able to paint and exhibit consistently.
But a single career in the Arts is very demanding and maintaining two is doubly challenging. One has got to give; one has to be the lesser activity. In Brown's case, it is painting that has been overshadowed by his music career. The present collection of works shows that he has talent but the paintings suffer from lack of sufficient time in the studio to hone skills and develop a personal visual vocabulary. In addition, we are unable to gauge this artist's thought process. The variety of themes and subjects presented demonstrate that he is not quite settled conceptually.
Formally, Brown's representational works especially display weaknesses in draughtsmanship, colour, form and light. At first glance we may be tempted to consider portraiture as his strongest theme but upon closer scrutiny, we recognise that this is not so. He appears to work from photographs, which tend to flatten images to some extent. When painters work from photographic references, a clear understanding of colour and form is crucial to the success of the painted image. In Brown's case, he is striving after a realistic representation where form and dramatic lighting complement each other but he fails to adequately capture the form and the character of his subjects.
As a landscape painter, he exhibits better control over composition but his range of tones and colour mixes are not luminous to create contrast to enliven the scenes. It may be that his application of both acrylic and oil paints may be at fault as well, as it appears that his brushes may not be loaded with adequate pigment when applied to the canvases.
It is interesting to note that most of the pieces are dated 2003 and these exhibit the greatest technical flaws. The earlier pieces, which date from 1994 to 1996 and correspond to the period just after his graduation from UNLV when he was steadily painting and exhibiting, show greater observational skills by the artist. Although technical problems are still evident, works such as the still lifes, The Optimist and Water is Life as well as the figurative work, Carnival Pickney, display wider tonal ranges and a sense of light and form.
THE STUDIO
With this realisation, we acknowledge that time in the studio is an important factor for the artist in order for him to address painting problems. This does not mean that he should perhaps abandon painting in favour of music due to time constraints. If he wishes to continue doing both, he may have to schedule blocks of studio time within his performance calendar. Naturally, it will take him a longer time to put a body of work together but given his love of both arts, it will be worth it.
A. J. Brown faces a consistent challenge of juggling two career preoccupations and like other artists, he must also meet the financial challenges of daily life, which his music may be able to fulfil faster than painting. While we are convinced of his talent in both areas, if his painting is to survive and improve, he will have to greatly pull on his creative instincts to maintain both. One thing though is certain, both cannot have first place.
The exhibition continues until January 2004.
