Featured Faculty: Ian Brownlee

Ian Brownlee is a painter and muralist living in Asheville, North Carolina, and we're lucky to have him joining us at Snow Farm June 19 - 24 to teach Narrative Drawing, a 5-day workshop. Of his own work, Ian says he creates "visual poems that combine the scientific with the mythological." He says when people look at his paintings, he wants to go beyond and around rational thought and take viewers where they can explore "worlds lost, with mysterious histories much stranger than we can imagine."  Ian's paintings tell the stories of those who have been silenced, including the "voices of humans, plants, and animals, communicated through waterways, bird migrations, prairie dog tunnels, and underground mycelial networks."

Ian studied art at the Atlanta College of Art, where he got a BFA, and also at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. His paintings have been exhibited too many places to list here; likewise, he has painted murals on the walls of doctors’ offices, restaurants, schools, and businesses.

In teaching about narrative and drawing, Ian uses playful exercises and techniques to free the mind and help students discover the narratives they wish to tell in fresh ways. In the video interview below, watch Ian do a demo like one he does in class and talk about the narrative in one of his own paintings. See more about Ian here and here.