Stephen Brown

(http://www.forumgallery.com/adetail.php?id=83 10-23-09 )Originally from Greeley, Colorado, Stephen Brown is now a committed resident of New England, and is a permanent member of the painting faculty at the University of Hartford (CT). The 1994 winner of the Academy Award in Art at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Brown was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1999. There, he was awarded the Benjamin Altman Award for landscape in 1994 and the Gladys Emerson Cook Prize in 2001. Stephen Brown has also twice received the Coffin Grant, a competitive grant awarded to a member of the University of Hartford faculty. Stephen Brown’s work is in the collections of the Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY; The Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; The Albany Museum, Albany, GA; The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT and the National Academy of Design. His paintings have also been shown in exhibitions at Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in numberous exhibitions at Forum Gallery, New York.Stephen is listed as a student of Lennart Anderson---Forum Gallery, October 21, 2009We are saddened to announce the passing of Colorado-born artist Stephen Brown. He passed away in his home in Granville, MA, surrounded by his loving family, at the age of 59.Stephen adored figurative, landscape, and still-life painting. He derived his artistic inspiration from the work of George Inness, Edward Hopper, Jack Beal, and Raphael Soyer whose work led him to Forum Gallery. The gallery began representing Stephen in 1994, first exhibiting him in three group shows in 1995 before giving him two solo exhibitions in 2000 and 2004. Stephen painted highly personal subjects, whether portraits, landscapes of his native Colorado, or ordinary household objects. The intimate scale he favored belies the emotional impact he achieved by his unique ability to paint images of profound clarity and blunt honesty. Stephen had a special ability to depict for us not just what his subjects were, but what they had "lived" through.Stephen was a gifted teacher and taught at the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, CT. He had a generous spirit towards both students and fellow artists, and his contribution towards the education of a new generation of artists will be remembered. Stephen’s talents were noted in his lifetime by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NY, who awarded him the Academy Award for Painting in 1994. The same year he was also the recipient of the Benjamin Altman Award for landscape from the National Academy of Design, NY. Stephen’s work has been collected by the Hofstra Museum, Hempstead, NY; the Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT; the Albany Museum, Albany, GA; The Speed Museum, Louisville, KY; and the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT. Stephen was a warm, sensitive and loving soul, a gifted artist, and a wonderful father to his two children. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Contributions in Stephen’s name may be directed to the Milestone Ministries for the Homeless, 34-40 Front Street, Building 6L, 2nd Floor, Indian Orchard, MA 01151.