Artist Sobhy Brown (British artist)

Artist Sobhy Brown 

“I was born in 1963 and grew up in England, coming to America in 1987 when I went to the University of Michigan to study for an MFA in painting. I had completed my BFA at Goldsmiths College of London University and was ready for a change of scene. My painting when I first came to the US. was almost entirely abstract with an emphasis on geometry and growth patterns; a reaction no doubt to finding myself in an expansive and verdant country. Since then I have worked as a mural painter, depicting subjects ranging from land and seascapes based on Santorini in the Greek Islands, to a Tuscan landscape with life size portraits and tromp l’oeil, to a ceiling transformed to a ruined barn roof with blue herons flying overhead. I have murals in private homes and business centers in Michigan, New Jersey and Colorado, But it was a commission to paint a dressage arena with life size horses and riders that bought a lifelong appreciation of horses into the studio and gave me a new life and direction​. "I hope my paintings capture ' the feel of the rush of life'. I want to show what it is like to be amongst horses in a great open country. I paint as a means of capturing and the blood and bone responses of the horse in images of speed, freedom, alarm, curiosity and exuberance. In the horse’s alertness and physicality I recognize our common nature and a manifestation of what in us is often hidden and complicated. I find subjects at rodeos, the sporting show-biz remnants of a practical past. The bucking horse paintings show an adrenaline-born moment when both horse and rider are tapping into their primary resources. They are about hanging onto a rough ride and getting a threat off your back. They are about strength, balance and survival.. "