ROGER BROWN IN LA CONCHITA
In the late 1980s, tiring of Chicago winters, Roger Brown (1941-1997) searched for a place to build a winter studio in a warmer climate. He was drawn to southern California, in part because it was the last place that he and his partner, George Veronda (1940-1984), traveled together before Veronda died. When he discovered the property at 6754 Ojai in La Conchita––a single lot with a fence, grass, carport, and a 1955 Spartan trailer––he knew it had to be his next home. La Conchita (“little shell” in Spanish) is a modest beach community south of Santa Barbara. In addition to the lush local flora, dozens of exotic varieties of bananas were grown in La Conchita, despite the prevailing view that banana farming was not viable in California. Brown may have intuited that it was a good place for a home and garden. The “Royal Mansion” Spartan trailer parked at 6754 Ojai sparked Brown’s interest in the property. The Spartan was designed in 1955 by the Getty Corporation, which manufactured Spartan Aircraft Trailers beginning in 1945 in a retrofitted aircraft factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a post-war effort to provide much needed inexpensive housing for returning veterans. Spartans were streamlined beauties and came in five sizes: Spartanette (the smallest), Manor, Manor Tandem, Mansion, and Royal Mansion. Brown purchased 6754 Ojai in 1988, and moved into his Spartan Royal Mansion. In a surprise departure from his previous work with plants and gardens, Brown first created an austere, Asian-style raked gravel garden with islands of rock and subtle greenery––an elegant and spartan setting for his elegant Spartan. He lined the east border with rose shrubs in a stone bed––beginning, we think, his fervent interest in rose cultivation that was fully explored in his New Buffalo, Michigan, garden, where he planted over 400 rose shrubs in many varieties in 1993 and 1994. His interest in roses was further expressed in his sequence of four Rosa paintings made in 1993 and 1994. As writings in Brown’s sketchbook indicate, the Royal Mansion was perfect in many ways. He found a dwelling that reflected his visual vocabulary and design ethos essentially. He appointed the Spartan with furnishings that harmonized with the Spartan’s streamlined design, including Russel Wright dinnerware. The Spartan became his muse and museum. Brown’s La Conchita home and garden were ideal, aesthetically, but lacked space for a studio. Brown rented studio space nearby for a time, but he eventually commissioned Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman to design his La Conchita “Temple of Painting.” It’s been said that he traded his painting, Stanley Tigerman in his Domain for the design of his La Conchita home. After ludicrous and protracted struggles with neighbors and the Ventura County Planning Commission, which he expressed in his 1989 painting, Citizens Killing Themselves After Having To Deal With the Ventura County Coastal Planning Commission (if you’re dreaming of California it doesn’t matter where you played before California is a whole new game), the house, carport, and garage were completed in 1993. Handsome and broad-shouldered, part barn, part basilica, with Romanesque clerestory, Brown’s new home had walls of stucco painted a deep salmon-pink, inspired by the color of the La Purisima Mission in nearby Lompoc. Brown planted a formal line of six full-size Mexican Fan Palms (Washingtonia Robusta) along the front, scaled perfectly to the proportions of the house. A row of skyrocket junipers lined the rear, and a plump agave anchored the front of the Spartan, which was tucked in the rear corner of the property after the house was constructed, despite seemingly insurmountable zoning conflicts. Brown prevailed and the Spartan remained. CONTINUED, PAGE 7
Opposite Rosa Californica, 1994, courtesy of the Roger Brown Estate and Kavi Gupta.
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