Stephen Brown - International Aviation Artist

Stephen Brown is a self-taught artist who has specialised almost exclusively in aviation subjects for the last 15 years. Building on a background as a landscape and aviation photographer, his style carefully combines both these areas of interest. Stephen’s originals in oil are in much demand and have been regularly exhibited with the prestigious Guild of Aviation Artists. Demand for his originals is high with regular commissions being undertaken for commercial and private clients as well as the RAF.

For many years Stephen successfully combined a career as a professional in the IT industry with his passion for art. Recently though he has chosen to go full time as an aviation artist and in 2002 joined SWA Fine Art Publishers in order to bring his work to a wider audience of collectors.

Stephen says, “My interest in aviation comes both from my father, who was a designer at Westland, and from growing up in post war Britain on a diet of films like 633 Squadron and The Dambusters.

I used to combine aircraft and landscape photos in the darkroom with quite convincing results - when I reached the limit of what I could do with this I turned to painting to get greater flexibility. Photography taught me much about composition, colour and contrast - drawing and brushwork skills, though, have taken a long time to develop.

My favourite paintings are those like In Safe Hands where I can combine the aircraft with a dramatic sky and plenty of period landscape detail.”