B R O O K S A N D E R S O N
“An open water subject, Thalassa, in Greek Mythology, is the Primordial Goddess of the Sea. I have titled this piece with a double meaning: both a primeval and visceral experience of the awe of Nature; and also as a threshold, an opening or beginning.
“It is when we have become at one, submerged, baptized and connected with the invigorating depths, that we may actually find ourselves...even healing for these uneasy times. Besides, everyone really enjoys seeing the smooth submerged stones and pebbles under the water’s surface.”
Cover: Thalassa No. 5 Oil on canvas 48" x 48" $8,500
B R O O K S A N D E R S O N
Brooks Anderson’s eloquent oil on canvas and panel landscapes are an exploration into the power of Contemporar y Landscape painting. Known for his gifted handling of composition, detail, and clarity of light, he evokes in paint the experience of atmosphere and natural phenomena. In 1982, he graduated California State University, Nor thridge, with a Bachelor of Fine Ar ts degree. Then in 1984, the renowned New York ar t critic Theodore F. Wolf f discovered his work, and suggested that David Findlay, Jr., Fine Ar t should represent him. For the next decade he was represented there, as well as the Schmidt-Bingham and Sherr y French Galleries in New York City. Olga Dollar and William Sawyer Galleries in San Francisco represented his work on the West Coast.
His paintings are now found in numerous collections, including the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, and are featured in the seminal book, Spirit of Place: Contemporar y American Realism in the Landscape Tradition, by John Ar thur. His work was purchased by this museum, and was included in the museum ’ s multi-city exhibition, entitled “Green Woods and Cr ystal Waters: The American Landscape Tradition.” Anderson is currently being represented by the Addington Galler y in Chicago, and Cooper and Smith in Essex, Connecticut. This year the Ar t Museum of Sonoma County is exhibiting his work in a comprehensive retrospective: “LANDSCAPE: Awe to Activism.”
It is in his new series of large-scale, spiritually-evocative paintings that his vision opens up and aspires to majesty. Here he por trays the landscape in a contemporar y context pristine, modern meditations on land, sea, and sky, as if there is a divine structure beneath the sur face. There is a riveting, imminent, and haunting quality to these numinous paintings of the natural world. Brooks Anderson, who lives in nor thern California, takes relish in the act of painting, responding to what is happening on the sur face of the work. He builds up layers of vibrant, transparent color, while simultaneously harnessing an energy in the composition. Anderson dives beneath the sur face appearance of his subject matter to discover something irresistibly profound.
Coast High oil on canvas 24
“This painting is from the Pacific Coast Highway outside of Malibu. It pre
hway No. 2
esents a clean and contemporary format of essential sky, sea, and road.”
“This painting gives you the impression of being intimately part of the scene, right there with the breaki miracle of Nature is right there in front of you.”
ing wave. The wave's beauty, the movement in this piece, its colors and transparency, the shear
“A made-up image of cloudscape, this sun rising piece isn’t about a particular place this time it’s more about the evocative, atmospheric subject matter. I love the smooth gradation and blending between the sky and water in this piece, with the brilliance of sun and reflection piercing the oncoming day.”
“From Santa Barbara’s Mesa area (specifically the Douglas Family Preserve), this painting reminded me of the beauty of the human, twisting torso, mirrored in the shape of this eucalyptus tree.”
“The second from NorCal, this is from Point Reyes National Seashore, west Marin County. It’s an untouched landscape, way out in the middle of nowhere. These timeless cliffs are part of Drakes Bay near Point Reyes itself, and this particular viewpoint (a long hike to get there) is from Sunset Beach.
“I really gravitate toward strong compositions; and this structure, for me, is not only quintessential Brooks Anderson, but is especially dynamic with diagonals, verticals, and horizontals. Plus, I love painting the nuances of water!”
Range of Light
Oil on canvas 24" x 20" $2,000
“I wanted to create a couple of local to me Sonoma County paintings, and this is one of them: A lovely view of fields with a coastal pine forest mountain range, with an extraordinary sunset overhead. I love the complementary juxtaposition of colors of blues and persimmons. It’s near the city of Healdsburg.”
Ancient Evening: Sonoma
“A simple cloud study, one that sets up a dynamic composition and movement.”
The
Heavens
“From the Zuma Beach/Malibu coastline, this is a simple scene yet complex. “negative space” of the sky mirrors the shape of the lower left land mass and oc repeated in the ocean; and the purple sand colors relate to the cliffs. Also, there Finally, the lifeguard tower mirrors the solidity of the cliffs.”
No. 3
4"
$4,500
This is an interplay piece, and there is some choreography going on. The cean, like puzzle pieces; the blues and greens of the lifeguard tower are e is a central, stationary stillness, contrasted with the movement of the wave.
“From the Malibu/Zuma Beach coastline, my direction is a combination of unveiling attribute of the eternality of Nature — without reference to a certain place or tim inseparable connection to life. The two land masses also mirror one another, in
or y (Homelands)
24" x 48" $4,500
g the pristine, fresh and contemporary seascape...also bring out the timeless me. What is left is an evocative presence, a visual symbol and metaphor of our a diagonal push and pull connection.”
“This piece, from the SoCal coast near Ventura, is about the compositional dance between cloud and wave, as both shapes kind of counter-mirror each other. There is a quietness to this painting, an instant and a moment in time.”
AD AQUAM (To the Water) No. 2
“I consider “Tower, no. 5” as an abstract piece – but with a high attention to detail. The guard rails and the lifeguard tower, are not really guard rails and tower they are two-dimensional shapes on a flat, rectangular surface.
“It’s about order and placement, a choreography on a stage. It is the breaking up of space (the vertical guard rail sits perfectly in the center of the painting), a tension and release, and an interplay and movement of line, shape, color. The subject is from the Malibu coastline.”
Tower No. 5
Oil on canvas 40" x 30" $5,000
Open oil on panel 24
“This piece isn’t about a particular place, like "VERITAS, No. 4 sea surface. This painting is about the quietude of the smooth atmospheric clouds.”
n Sea
" x 36" $3,500
, ” but instead the evocative feel of cloud mass over the open ripples of the ocean surface currents, and their relation to the
