Hannah Brown graduated from Colorado State University in 2005 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a concentration in metalsmithing and jewelry. Following her education, Brown moved back to Dallas to start her career as a custom fine jeweler for a local elite designer. After 11 years of honing her craft, she felt the need to switch her focus and go after a life long dream of becoming a painter.
By blending her jewelry career with her early childhood experiences of being raised by parents that embraced nature and creativity, she has created a distinct style all her own.
Brown primarily paints with oil on canvas to create her bold and eye catching gem encrusted paintings.
Statement
My three current working series come together to elegantly tell the story of my jewelry career.
Crow Series
I am a fan of anything that contradicts itself: nature and expensive diamonds; serious and playful; ugly and pretty. I use off-balance encounters, such as these in my paintings, to create something unexpected and slightly awkward, yet beautiful all at the same time.
This is representative in my crow series, where I use the famously known "hood rat" of birds — the crow (or raven) - juxtaposed with high-end, glitzy diamonds and gems.
By painting the crows in portrait style, each piece ends up with its own personality and a surreal, dreamlike mood. Upon reflection of several completed pieces, it occurred to me that each crow somehow represents a different client that I worked with as my time as a jeweler.
Gem Series
Much of my time as a jeweler was spent hand drawing precisely scaled renderings for clients during the design process.
My Gem Series is symbolic of the years spent studying diamonds and gemstones and how to depict facets and the reflection of light onto a two dimensional surface.
In this series, I loosen up with a more artistic approach compared to working with clients where my renderings needed to be realistic and perfectly scaled.
Bench Series
A jeweler’s bench is messy: random stones, gold filings, broken saw blades, burn marks from a scalding hot piece of metal accidentally dropped, wax models, and half completed pieces of jewelry all scattered about.
This series is my abstract representation of that organized chaos. Random yet cohesive colors, marks, and quick jewelry sketches all reference the process of a bench jeweler.
I enjoy executing my ideas on large scale canvases with oversized subject matter that eloquently become the focal point and conversation starter of a room.
@simply_hbrown to see more!
Powered by Artwork Archive