JOHN BROWN AT EIGHTY
JOHN BROWN AT EIGHTY
1. At Eighty p3
2. Artist Statement p5
3. Travels p7
4. Gardens & Allotments p15
5. Walks Along The Canals p55
6. Still Life p73
7. Biography p87
AT EIGHTY
This July, we celebrates John Brown’s eightieth year with a major exhibition marking twenty-two years of exhibiting with The Scottish Gallery. Showcasing a significant body of new work alongside paintings inspired by recent travels, the exhibition honours an artist whose practice has been shaped by a lifelong engagement with the world around him. From the markets of Marrakech and the streets of Havana to the gardens and canals of Edinburgh, Brown transforms lived experience into vivid images, expressed through an enduring curiosity in the possibilities of paint.
Born in Ayrshire in 1945, Brown studied at Glasgow School of Art between 1963 and 1968. His tutors included David Donaldson, Duncan Shanks and Willie Bone, whose commitment to drawing and direct, gestural painting was a formative experience. It was in Glasgow that Brown encountered the work of Joan Eardley at her memorial exhibition at Kelvingrove in 1964. Eardley’s response to landscape and weather impressed, culminating in seascapes from his Portencross studio on the Ayrshire coast. While Brown would soon establish his own distinct visual language, Eardley’s emotional engagement with the natural world remained influential. During his student years Brown visited the Pierre Bonnard retrospective at the Royal Academy in London. Bonnard’s use of shortened pencils, believing they offered the artist a more varied and expressive mark making became a practice he adopted from 1966 onwards.
Travelling scholarships awarded by the Royal Scottish Academy and Glasgow School of Art in 1968 first inspired the artist’s love of foreign places. Since then, travel has remained central to Brown’s artistic practice. Catalonia, Venice, Kerala,
Vietnam, Cambodia, Tuscany, Collioure, Havana and, more recently, Marrakech have all provided rich inspiration. His work begins in direct observation, sketching from life and developed later in the studio. In recent years, his Edinburgh garden and local allotments have offered an equally abundant source of imagery. The garden, through which he walks on his way to his studio, is a constant presence in his life. Sketching among the sweet peas, Brown responds to the cycles of growth, decay and regeneration across the seasons. Also included in the exhibition is a series of paintings and pastels inspired by walks along the city’s canal paths which have opened his eyes to the rolling farmland of the Central Belt. A discerning colourist, Brown works in pastel to record colour swiftly, capturing fleeting moments witnessed in nature.
The surface of Brown’s paintings have a distinctive physical energy. Their varying texture portrays weathered walls, sunlit stone and garden paths through layers of drawing, collage and paint from which images gradually emerge. Over time, Brown has become increasingly interested in paint itself as a subject. At the heart of his most successful work is his ability to balance the competing tensions of structure and spontaneity as he pushes his images further from observation toward abstraction.
At eighty, John Brown’s artistic reflects a lifetime spent looking and observing the world, transforming the familiar and everyday into moments of beauty and wonder. From distant travels to the familiar paths of his Edinburgh garden, Brown continues to approach his varied subjects with a vivacious curiosity. We invite you to enter John Brown’s world, a joyful, personal vision from one of Scotland’s most accomplished colourists.
THE SCOTTISH GALLERY
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Previously, planning an exhibition for The Scottish Gallery would start by choosing an exciting place to visit – like Kerela, Cuba, Italy, France, Vietnam and Cambodia. There I would research and draw, creating images and absorbing the sense of place. This practice started when I was on my travelling scholarship from Glasgow School of Art to Holland.
However, this time, due to advancing years, a lack of energy and diminished sense of adventure, I decided to focus closer to home. My own garden, local allotments and views from the canal, which flows between Edinburgh and Glasgow, became my inspiration for this exhibition. The images from these subjects together with some retrospective paintings from John Brown at Eighty.
It is therefore an eclectic mix, no thematic exotic place, but I hope the viewer will see the hand of the artist as the constant theme, in which sometimes paint becomes the subject.
Included are two self-portraits, in one, the artist is 21 and the other aged 80 –they are not intended to be a before and after nor an egotistical pose with a crown – more like a paper party hat, as a nod to David Donaldson who painted himself in a chef’s hat, while I was at GSA, and painting my earlier self-portrait.
TRAVELS
1 Havana Balcony, Cuba, 2015-2026 acrylic and collage on board, 168 x 117 cm
2 Lilypond, France, 2020
acrylic on board, 90 x 150 cm
3 Dyers Souk 1, Morocco, 2023
acrylic on board with collage, 123 x 122 cm
GARDENS & ALLOTMENTS
4 Garden Series 2, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
5 Garden Series 1, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
6 Garden Series 4, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
7 Garden Series 3, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
My studio in Edinburgh is less than fifty metres from my house, across a pebble path, past a pond full of tadpoles and a wild area with Silver Birches. Gardening for me is a happy companion to painting. It is a similar passion and process, albeit a slower one. My morning inspection of the garden leads to the door of my studio, the walls filled with drawings from my travels, the floor littered with collage material waiting for the Brown magpie to discover a gem that becomes a good starting point.
John Brown, 2018
8 Garden Series 5, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
9 My Garden, 2025 mixed media on board, 100 x 122 cm
10 Craigleith Garden, 2025 mixed media on board, 23 x 25 cm
11 Garden, Summertime 1, 2025 mixed media on board, 36 x 37 cm
Sweet peas have always been a passion of mine. They last only one season from seed to flower, often grown in a trellis or support on which they climb, forming a screen of pattern and colour. I love their structure and an endless supply of blooms. As an artist, I am inspired by the 2D geometry of the support juxtaposed with the organic shape of growth. My garden paintings often address the challenge of marrying organic shapes against a flat abstract background. The paintings were constructed in an asymmetrical composition. Empty panels balance complex ones, the starting point is often the central shape. The subject of this series was the cycle of growth and the promise of regeneration. John Brown, 2022
12 Passion Flower and Sweet Pea Pods, 2021 acrylic and collage on board, 122.5 x 149 cm
13 Lilies in the Garden, 2025 mixed media on board, 21 x 30.5 cm
14 Garden, Summertime 2, 2026 acrylic on board, 101.5 x 103.5 cm
15 Allotment Series, Warriston 2 2025, pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
16 Allotment Series, Warriston 4, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
17 Allotment Series, Inverleith 2, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
18 Allotment Series, Inverleith 1, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
19 Allotments, 2025 mixed media on board, 86 x 122 cm
20 Dean Gallery Allotments II, 2026 acrylic on board, 76 x 101 cm
21 Allotment Series, Dean Gallery 13, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
22 Allotment Series, Dean Gallery 12, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
23 Dean Gallery Allotments I, 2026 acrylic on board, 76 x 101 cm
24 Allotment Series, Ferry Road 6, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
25 Allotment Series, Sheffield 2, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
26 Allotment Series, Sheffield 1, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
27 Allotment Series, Sheffield 6, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
28 Winter Allotments, Sheffield, 2026 mixed media on board, 22 x 27.5 cm
29 Allotment Series, Warriston 3, 2025 pastel on paper, 30 x 23 cm
30 Yellow Greenhouse, Inverleith, 2025 mixed media on board, 25 x 23 cm
31 Allotment Series, Sheffield 5, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
32 Allotment Series, Sheffield 4, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
33 Allotment Series, Sheffield 3, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
34 Garden, Sheffield 7, 2026 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
35 Sheffield Garden, 2026
acrylic on board, 76 x 101 cm
Allotments, which are in gated campuses fall into two categories – 1. The neat and tidy ones which are like extensions of the owners’ homes, with many of the same creature comforts – and 2. The organic type, a collage of disparate objects, containers and Heath Robinson-like structures. As an artist, I am more inspired by the latter. Each of the five allotment sites had their own identity and varying degrees of friendliness towards the artist intruder. The Dean Gallery allotments are open, dominated by the structure of the gallery, but with no greenhouses or huts which pepper other sites. Another varying factor is seasonal, determining the crops and consequently the colour palette. Also, the subject of each allotment, and its location determined a lean towards representationalism or abstraction. The background to some suggested a landscape, others were more two dimensional, the picture plane flattened out to a pattern of shapes and textures. The allotments provided a rich source of imagery in very quiet and personal spaces. The five allotment sites visited were Warriston, Inverleith, Ferry Road, Dean Gallery and one in Sheffield. John Brown, 2026
36 Allotment Series, Ferry Road 2, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
37 Allotment Series, Ferry Road 1, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
38 Allotment Series, Warriston 5, 2025 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
39 Allotment Series, Warriston 1, 2025 pastel on paper, 30 x 23 cm
40 Yellow Bath in the Allotments, 2025 mixed media on board, 25 x 23 cm
41 Allotment Huts, Sheffield, 2026 mixed media on board, 25 x 30 cm
42 Colours and Textures, Inverleith, 2025 mixed media on board, 19.5 x 24 cm
43 Warriston Allotments, 2025
acrylic and ash on board, 100 x 122 cm
44 Inverleith Allotments, 2026
acrylic and charcoal on board, 76 x 101 cm
WALKS ALONG THE CANALS
45 Canal Series 3, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
46 Canal Series 11, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
47 Canal Series 12, 2024 pastel on paper, 30 x 23 cm
48 Canal Series 8, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
49 Canal Series 10, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
50 Canal Series 9, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
51 Canal Series 5, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
52 Harvesting by the Canal, 2025 acrylic on board, 103 x 121.5 cm
53 Canal Series 6, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
54 West Lothian Farmland, 2026 acrylic on board, 103 x 121 cm
55 Canal Series 2, 2024 pastel on paper, 30 x 23 cm
56 Canal Series 4, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
Having been brought up in Ayrshire and spending five years studying at-Glasgow School of Art, The majority of the rest of my life has been spent in Edinburgh. As a project, I thought I would walk from Edinburgh to Glasgow following the route of the canals – not n one go, but in stages and stopping along the way to make drawings. The tranquility on the canal paths is similar to that felt in the allotments and my on Garden, thus creating a common theme. Canal house boats, paddle boarders, canoers, dog walkers and cyclists provided friendly cheer without distubing the creative flow. However the canal was not the main focus of my interest, rather the ever changing surrounding landscape. My patient walking companion was happy to read while I made my drawings, nonetheless this created an urgency to work quickly, intuitiely, making few changes — no bad thing! John Brown, 2026
57 Pinetrees by the Canal, 2025-2026 acrylic on board, 122 x 93 cm
Collage helps to structure a composition, moving the eye across the picture plane rather than creating three dimensional form or pictorial space. I often begin a painting by sticking paper, cloth, card, newspaper on to a board to build a compositional framework, working from large to small. Unexpected relationships of colour and texture frequently appear as paint and paper react together offering welcome “happy accidents”. Working intuitively like this often allows the painting to lead the artist.
John Brown, 2022
58 Canal Series 1, 2024 pastel on paper, 23 x 30 cm
59 Fields from the Canal, 2025 acrylic and collage on board, 120 x 122 cm
STILL LIFE
60 Dried Sunflowers, 2025 acrylic on board, 101 x 76 cm
61 Poppies in the Garden, Pattie’s Plum, 2025
acrylic on board, 97 x 122 cm
62 Birthday Table, 2025-2026 acrylic on board, 103 x 117 cm
63 Silver Dancing Shoes, 2024 acrylic and collage, 102 x 122 cm
64 Parrot Tulips, 2025 acrylic on board, 37.5 x 33 cm
65 Spanish Window, 2024 acrylic and collage on board, 122 x 122 cm
66 Still Life with Gardening Gloves, 2024 acrylic on board, 101 x 100 cm
JOHN BROWN b.1945
1945 born in Edinburgh, Scotland
1963 – 68 trained Glasgow School of Art
1968 awarded RSA Carnegie Travelling Scholarship awarded GSA Cargill Travelling Scholarship
1994 elected member of Visual Arts Scotland
1996 elected member of Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2024 Stafford Gallery, Wimbledon
2023 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2018 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2015 Stafford Gallery, Wimbledon
2014 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2011 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2010 Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen
Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
2009 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
Lemon Street Gallery, Truro
2008 Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
2007 Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
2006 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2005
Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
Richmond Hill Gallery, London
2004
The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2003 John Davies Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold
2002
Richmond Hill Gallery, London
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
2001 John Davies Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold
Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
2000 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
1999 Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
1998
1996
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
1992 The Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh
1979 Moray House, Edinburgh
1976
Duncan Miller Fine Arts, London
1970 Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Aida Cherfan Gallery, Beirut
The Fleming Collection, London
Korean Embassy, London
Kuwait Royal Family
Lillie Art Gallery, Glasgow
University of Edinburgh
University of Stirling
Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition:
John Brown
At Eighty
2 - 25 July 2026
Exhibition can be viewed online at: scottish-gallery.co.uk/john-brown
ISBN: 978-1-917803-25-0
Designed and Produced by The Scottish Gallery
Photography by John McKenzie
Printed by Pure Print cover: Inverleith Allotments, 2026 (cat. 45) (detail)
inside front cover: 67. Self Portrait, 1967, oil on canvas, 76 x 60 cm inside back cover: 68. Self Portrait at 80 Wearing a Party Hat, 2026 acrylic on board, 81 x 76 cm
All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders.
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