IN THE STUDIO
Bryan has succeeded in keeping
hold of that sense of child-like wonder
and appetite for new experiences,
which can be keenly felt in his oil
paintings today.
What is most surprising, however,
is that his choice of medium also
dates back to childhood. While most
of his peers were unwrapping bicycles
or action figures, eight-year-old Bryan
had asked his parents for an oil
painting set for Christmas, which he
used to channel his love of nature.
“I remember doing a drawing of
a horned owl in grade school and
remember feeling something specialabout the experience,” he recalls.
Art was an obvious career path and
Bryan settled upon plein air painting
in particular during his MFA at the
Academy of Art University in San
Francisco, after experimenting with
different media and styles during a
more generalised bachelor degree
at Utah’s Brigham Young University.
Bryan is particularly drawn to what
he calls “vanishing landscapes” –
places undergoing change by one
means or another, whether that’s
development or destruction, lending
his otherwise sublime paintings a
rather urgent edge. When he visits anew country or city, he likes to spend
a day or two exploring and getting a
feel for a place before he opens his
paintbox. “It’s not just the subject
that’s important but the time of day
the subject looks best,” he says.
“Some subjects are better in the
morning or evening light, and some
in overcast light.”
After searching out these very
specific light conditions, Bryan feels
a certain responsibility to observe
and record a sense of them as quickly
and accurately as possible. This is
especially important in a subject such
as the oneinthepaintingHavanaRIGHT Downtown
Los Angeles, oil on
panel, 30x30cm
LEFT Havana
Classic, oil on
panel, 46x61cm
Artists & Illustrators 39