Ryan S. Brown

Ryan S. Brown was born and reared in Salt Lake City, Utah. By the time he was a senior in high school, Ryan had decided to pursue art as a profession. This pursuit led him to Brigham Young University where he studied illustration, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2002.

While finishing his studies at BYU, Ryan became aware of the deficiencies in his University education. Because his interests were in the academic and naturalist traditions of the nineteenth century, it became necessary for him to get the foundational drawing and painting training not offered at the university. In his senior year at BYU, Ryan began studying with William Whitaker, a renowned portrait and figurative painter. Soon after this, Ryan entered the Florence Academy of Art, where he received his first taste of Academic training. The organized, intense and concise training of the Florence Academy provided Ryan with what he considers the beginning of his understanding of the craft of art. This training not only gave Ryan a deep understanding and love of drawing, but also developed in him a strong self-discipline and work ethic, as well as an insatiable appetite for learning.

In 2003 Ryan returned home to Utah. Upon his return, Ryan began producing work for galleries. Ryan also began teaching academic principles at BYU, teaching figure drawing, observational and spatial drawing and cast drawing. Ryan also opened his studio to students, establishing the Classical Drawing Academy in Springville, Utah. During the three years this Academy was available to students, Ryan saw more than 80 students come through his studio to experience this training. Ryan also taught part-time at Utah Valley State College. Ryan was able to teach and pass on these academic principles until the end of 2006. Ryan also taught at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art sporadically between 2004 and 2006, culminating in an academic drawing workshop given in 2006. An article in American Artist Workshop Magazine in the Winter 2006 issue covered this workshop.

In January, 2007 Ryan, his wife and three kids moved back to Florence in order to finish his studies at the Florence Academy of Art.

Ryan is living and working again in Utah and has established the Center for Academic Study and Naturalist Painting (CAS). He is currently interviewing potential students and welcomes any application for study.

Ryan was the top award winner of the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey scholarship in 2004. He also received third place in the Art Renewal Scholarship competition in 2005. In 2006 Ryan was one of ten artists to be invited by American Artist Magazine to the Forbes Trinchera Ranch for a nine day retreat that was followed by a special article in the magazine and a showing of these select artist’s works at the Forbes Gallery in New York in March, 2007. Ryan was also accepted into the Hudson River School for Landscape in its inaugural year, which he attended in the summer of 2007. In 2007 Ryan also won Fourth Place in the Art Renewal Center Scholarship Competition. Ryan was featured in the May, 2008 issue of Southwest Art as “A Rising Artist to Watch”. Ryan won the “Best Painting of the Year” at the Florence Academy of Art in 2008 as well as the President’s award.

Kaaterskill Clove, oil, 54" x 112"
 

Exhibitions

• 2009 Florence Academy of Art Alumni Exhibition. Florence, Italy
• 2009 Presidents Award for painting of ‘Nestor’ at the FAA Alumni Exhibition
• 2009 Art Hamptons Group Exhibition
• 2009 “Immortal Works” Figure Exhibition at Vasa Konsthall, Sweden
• 2009 Hudson River Revival at the Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah
• 2008 Ryan was published as an “Artist to Watch” in the May issue of Southwest Art Magazine
• 2008 December Exhibition at the Principle Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia
• 2008 December Exhibition at Anderson Fine Art, St. Simons Island, Georgia
• 2008 December Exhibition at Gallery Mar, Park City, Utah
• 2007 Group Exhibition at the Forbes Galleries in New York, New York
• 2007 Group Exhibition at W. H. Patterson Galleries in London
• 2007 Group Exhibition at Principle Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia
• 2007 One-Man Show at Astoria Fine Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
• 2007 Summer Salon at Wendt Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
• 2007 Great American Figurative Artists Show at the Waterhouse Gallery in Santa Barbara, California
• 2007 Armory Show, New York, New York
• 2007 Group Article covering the inaugural year of the Hudson River School for Landscape in the winter issue of American Artist Workshop Magazine
• 2007 Second Place Winner in The Artist’s Magazine Annual Landscape competition, as well as two other finalist awards
• 2007 Ryan’s work was published in the December issue of The Artist's Magazine
• 2006 Summer Salon at the Wendt Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
• 2006 Annual Religious Exhibition at the Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah
• 2006 Cover Article in the Deseret News featuring Ryan’s Classical Drawing Academy
• 2006 Group Exhibition at Astoria Fine Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
• 2006 October feature article in American Art Collector Magazine
• 2006 Winter Exhibition at the Century Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia
• 2006 American Artist Workshop Magazine article covering Ryan’s workshop held at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art
• 2006 Published in the Book Strokes of Genius: The Best of Drawing
• 2005 Young Up and Coming Artists Show at the Wendt Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
• 2005 Ryan’s work was published in two how–to books entitled 100 Ways to Paint the Landscape and 100 Ways to Paint the Figure
• 2005 Group Exhibition at the Century Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia
• 2005 Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah
• 2005 Grand Opening Exhibition at Astoria Fine Art, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
• 2005 Published in the book How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Seascapes
• 2005 Published in the book How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint the Figure