RAY BROWN

MEDIUM

Drawing

ARTIST STATEMENT

“With my work, I am trying to communicate my love for nature, drawing, and design back to the world.”

ARTIST BIO

Ray has been working as an artist since he graduated from college with a B.S. in visual communications. He worked mostly as an illustrator and graphic designer in and around Baltimore, Maryland where he had lived all his life. Although he enjoyed his work as an artist he was creating work according to the commercial needs at hand. He longed to create the kind of work that would combine his love of nature, wildlife, and the outdoors with his artistic sensibilities and experience. After a move to California in 2002, Ray has been able to pursue that dream fulltime.

Ray’s art is a reflection of his experiences in the field. Ray says, “Each trip to the wilderness fills my creative font. I use only my own experiences as reference for my work. Being out in the field is the facet of my creative process that fuels me.”

Ray’s preferred medium is simply charcoal on paper. Working with charcoal sticks, pencils and powders and various types of paper is about as bare bones as an artist can get with one’s medium. Charcoal in its simplicity is a very direct and surprisingly versitile tool of expression, when viewing a finished drawing one is able to see right to the core of the artist’s effort. Using only value (relative lightness and darkness), composition (design), and the illusion of texture to create an image unassisted by color but still managing to convey a sense of place or evoke a certain emotion is a difficult challenge. It is this challenge that inspires Ray’s daily pursuits in his work.

Art is a never-ending struggle to create something from nothing using all of ones ideas, knowledge, and experience. It is the creative process that is the best part for the artist and the results of that process are what the artist is able to share with everyone. – Ray Brown

Highlights: South Eastern Wildlife Expo(SEWE), Charleston SC : Featured Artist 2025 ; Wild West: Wildlife Masters Past and Present at the Steamboat Art Museum, December 1, 2023 – April 13, 2024; Festival of Arts/Pageant of the Masters (juried show) 2013-25; Birds In Art 2010, 2012-2016, 2018-2025 Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum Wausau, WI; Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale (juried auction) 2013-24; Third place The Artist’s Magazine 2010 Art Competition; Published Strokes of Genius 3, 5, 6 The Best of Drawing; Collection of The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum