Allan Brown

My themes cover landscape, natural forms and women mainly in paint and ceramics.
   
In my landscapes and natural forms I try to achieve a kind of brooding, mysterious quality often expressed in forms emerging out of or receding into darkness suggesting something primeval.
   
The paintings and ceramics of women are linked to feminist issues worldwide. For centuries western artists have mostly sought to manipulate images of women to suit religious, cultural and personal needs, that is primarily as passive, submissive creatures. The premise of a whole woman has been fragmented into virgin, whore, femme fatale, dutiful wife, holy mother witch, etc. I became interested in the earliest forms of earth goddesses bound up with nature. the cycles of birth, death and regeneration, not merely nurturing but also powerful and sexual as necessary for procreation - a metaphor for modern woman. The ascent of Greek and Christian sky gods displaced the earth goddesses and heralded the subjugation of women by men with disastrous consequences to the present day. My paintings seek to subvert Christian iconography and Greek mythology. Some are humanitarian / political illustrating various forms of  male control and violence  perpetrated on women. 
   I love the versatility of clay, the direct process of hand building and experimenting with various glazes.

Forever Young

Fancy Me

Field Pond

Voodoo Dancer

Tree Form

Sea Cliff