By Steve Huffman
Salisbury Post
SPENCER ó Bob Brown said some artists agonize over their works, spending months ó or even years, maybe ó on a single painting.
Rest assured, Brown is no such artist. He produces quality work, but he also churns them out.
“I’m pretty prolific,” Brown said. “I do anywhere from 60 to 100 works a year.”
Earlier this month, Brown was working on one of those paintings in Spencer’s Library Park. He had his easel erected in the park’s northwest corner, a stone’s toss from its gazebo centerpiece.
Brown was working on an oil painting of a house on Third Street, a structure that sits catty-corner from the park. Locals refer to the bungalow as “the house on an island,” so dubbed because it sits atop a small hill and is surrounded by a sea of asphalt streets.
“It’s just a pretty little house,” Brown said. “It has nice lines.”
He said it’s reminiscent of a slew of bungalows built across the United States in the 1920s and ’30s.
Brown said he didn’t ask permission from the homeowners to paint a picture of their house, primarily because he’s doing his work from across the street and (lest they read of it in the newspaper) will likely never know what was transpiring outside.
“It’s not an invasion of their privacy,” Brown said.
He was doing his work in Spencer with plans to include the finished product in a show in January at the Hodges Taylor Gallery in Charlotte. Brown said he’s planning to include anywhere from six to 10 paintings in the show.
All, he said, are scenes from close to the railroad tracks north of Charlotte. In November, for instance, Brown painted a picture of a house in Landis that he plans to include in the show.
Brown, 53, is an interesting sort.
He’s a graduate of Appalachian State University and earned a master’s degree from Wake Forest. Brown also did post-graduate work at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
He worked for years as an analyst for an oil company in Texas. Brown said that about 18 years ago, he opted to pursue full time his first love of painting.
“I fought it for a long time, but I finally gave in,” Brown said of his decision to paint full time.
He said he manages to pay his bills, but admitted that rich artists are a rarity.
“It’s a great hobby, but an awful way to make a living,” Brown said.
He said some people are surprised when he tells them about his previous jobs, including his work as an analyst for the oil company.
But Brown said it’s really not that unusual, with the experience in other professions helpful when it comes to his artwork.
“Art takes everything you have,” he said. “It takes geometry. It involves a lot more than just slapping some paint onto canvas.”
Brown offers his works for sale at about eight shops across the state ó from Blowing Rock to Winston-Salem. Fine Frame Works on the Square in downtown Salisbury carries Brown’s paintings.
He admitted they’re not cheap. For instance, the painting he was working on in Spencer will sell for about $2,400.
Brown said he’s best known for his work painting urban and rural landscapes.
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Contact Steve Huffman at 704-797-4222 or shuffman@salisburypost.com.