Two distinct gardens: Becky Brinkley and Andy Brown at the Hutchinson Art Center
Brinkley's cyanotypes and Brown's colorful abstract paintings allude — directly and indirectly — to natural forms. They're on view through December 28 and January 4.
Even vampire-adjacent, fall-obsessed people like me could use a break from the trout gray sky and constant shower of dead leaves driven by 40-mile-an-hour, south central Kansas winds. Such was my mood when I entered the Hutchinson Art Center on a recent Friday afternoon to take in two exhibitions: "Paintings by Andy Brown" and "Cyanotypes by Becky Brinkley." The experience was like visiting two singular gardens, each designed to inspire introspection.
Andy Brown’s exhibition is on view in the art center’s Main Gallery through January 4. The large, rectangular, open space vibrates with the striking color forms that move within his abstract works. Brown’s artist statement spells it out for us: “My art is an expression of 4 meditations I have practiced for decades: The colors blue, red, yellow, and green. For me, each color represents an emotion or state of mind.”
Installation views of "Paintings by Andy Brown" at the Hutchinson Art Center. Photos by Teri Mott for the SHOUT.
Brown’s “garden” is sun-filled and flowing with nods to nature, botanical and otherwise. When you see these 59 acrylic paintings and mixed media pieces, you can read the emotions Brown connects to colors and view the works through that lens, if you choose. You are apt to be vulnerable to feelings of your own, as these color stories and glimpses of nature ring familiar bells of affection, conflict, concern, and joy within you.
While not a literal portrayal of a garden, Brown’s exhibition includes many works with imagery that feels directly informed by flowers, such as "Flight of the Tiled Plane" with its morning glory-like quilt pattern blossoms and leaves devised from green and red-orange triangles. The beautiful, comical "Thou Art More Vegetarian than I" gives the colorful impression of a blooming Christmas cactus, but is that also a raw chicken? Maybe, but one thing is certain: these abstract pieces capture the imagination.
Some works play with movement, using layers and contrasting colors to spark a journey of contemplation like a mandala. "Confetti," a painting bursting with greens and blues, appears to be made up of layers of torn, squarish paper, the order of which is mystifying. Possibly a portrait of a bundle of green and yellow snakes on a bright, blue day, "Extruded" doesn’t feel frozen in the moment. The tangling continues, constricting tighter. The exhilarating "Infinity: a 153 Piece Puzzle" is a kind of combination Mobius strip-mechanized gear system in reds and blues positioned so cleverly that the motion truly goes on and on and on.
Acrylic works by Andy Brown, from top left: "Confetti," "Extruded, ""Infinity: a 153 Piece Puzzle" and "Thou Art More Vegetarian than I," and "Play Glow." Photos by Teri Mott for the SHOUT.
Andy Brown grew up in the Chicago area and is a 1974 painting and sculpture graduate of the University of Kansas. He moved to Newton in 1980, graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University in computer science in 1987, and worked as a software developer until he retired in 2016. Now a working artist, Brown shares studio space with three other artists in the Newton Amtrak station, where he works about four hours a day. He is an active member of the Hutchinson Art Center, and his work is often on view at the Carriage Factory Art Gallery in Newton.
In the Front Gallery of the art center, Becky Brinkley’s exhibition of cyanotypes is up through December 28. While Brinkley creates the works outdoors during the daytime under full ultraviolet light, the results are an ode to a moonlit meadow, where faeries may not be visible but are surely just a breath away.
A longtime ceramicist and photographer living and working in Kansas City, Brinkley is fascinated with alternative process photography methods, particularly cyanotypes, and how effortlessly they combine with her passions for growing plants and collecting wildflowers.
To create “camera-less photographs,” including these cyanotypes (and lumen prints as well), the artist lays out a sheet of medium-density fiberboard, tops it with paper (watercolor paper in this case), brushes the paper with iron salts, and tops the it with plants she nurtured or wildflowers she harvested. Brinkley covers the botanicals with a heavy sheet of glass and allows the sun to do its thing: supply that UV light that inscribes the image. Sometimes she adds weights on top of the glass, which can make the image more detailed.
The images Brinkley produces are delicate, lovely, and ephemeral. Washing the exposed paper in water reveals a variety of hues in cyanotypes, in blue tones ranging from teal to cobalt to indigo to charcoal. The reverse white image is exquisitely detailed, surprisingly dimensional, and layered with gossamer petals. My stroll through Brinkley’s shadow garden added a further soothing element to my vastly improved day.
Becky Brinkley is keenly attuned to how fleeting the images she captures using alternative process photography are — because sunlight is what creates the images, exposure to light eventually over-develops them. She is still a ceramist at heart, so her next project involves making her alternative photography works more permanent by printing them on porcelain tiles. You can follow Brinkley and her work on Instagram at @becky.brinkley.
Cyanotypes by Becky Brinkley, from left: "False Indigo," "Nasturtiums," "Wildflowers." Images courtesy of the artist.
The Details
"Paintings by Andy Brown"
November 22, 2024-January 4, 2025
"Cyanotypes by Becky Brinkley"
December 4-28, 2024
The Hutchinson Art Center, 405 N. Washington St. in Hutchinson, Kansas
The art center is open to the public noon-5 p.m. Mondays and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with the exception of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day.
Admission is free.
Learn more about exhibitions at the Hutchinson Arts Center.
Teri Mott is a writer and actor in Wichita, Kansas, where she covers the arts as a critic and feature writer. She is a co-founder of the SHOUT.
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