Peggy milburn-brown is an award-winning artist and military wife. She dabbled in everything from ceramics, pottery, lithography and paintings on silk. Her work is displayed in the Royal Greenland Trade Company in Copenhagen.
Peggy milburn-brown is an award-winning artist and military wife. She dabbled in everything from ceramics, pottery, lithography and paintings on silk. Her work is displayed in the Royal Greenland Trade Company in Copenhagen.
Peggy milburn-brown is an award-winning artist and military wife. She dabbled in everything from ceramics, pottery, lithography and paintings on silk. Her work is displayed in the Royal Greenland Trade Company in Copenhagen.
many phases that one could go through in life's journey. A closing, a new beginning, a passage or transition--so many possibilities."
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Photographs of brightly painted doors march through a combination of oil and watercolor canvas titled “Door Corps.” A lily in vibrant hues of red, orange and yellow in quantifying detail stands out on a dark bluish-black silk backdrop titled “Gloriosa Lily.” These are only two of the paintings that make Peggy Milburn Brown a popular and award-winning artist.
A life undressed ■ By Colleen Ayala
R aised in Chattanooga, attending
school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and meeting took time out to hold her first one- woman art show. The successful show featured paintings on silk and lithography making her a name in the Dutch art community. Some of her pieces are displayed in the her husband, who retired a Lt. Royal Greenland Trade Colonel in the Air Force, she Company in Copenhagen. sighs happily, “ I went literally After three years of success off into the sunset.” As an artist overseas, they were reassigned and military wife she dabbled in to Montgomery, Alabama and everything from ceramics, never left. She became a free- pottery, lithography and lance art director and obtained a paintings on silk while raising position at the University of her children and moving Montgomery as their first graphic around the United States. After designer. She later taught the settling in Montgomery, first graphic design classes at Alabama in the 1980’s, her the University finally retiring husband suggested she take art two years ago to further pursue classes at Auburn University and her art career. She loves to there she received her degree. experiment and at the moment However, before “I could begin has found great success in my ‘second career,’ we were experimenting with mixed relocated to Copenhagen. “ media where she pushes all to In Copenhagen, she was the limit. Community Liaison Officer at Her third door series the American Embassy and beginning with “Door Corps” - began her art career oversees. allows her to “get into the She designed the Ambassador’s messy side of art” - dirtying up Christmas cards, created pen and ink invitations, and even See Alabama Painter next page►
The Art-to-Art Palette - Main Section - 2008-09 Fall/Winter Edition - 35
Alabama painter ◄ Continued from previous page
her hands in print making,
watercolor, collage, and relief printing; sometimes all on one canvas. Peggy has people tell her “Oh, you’re the one who paints the doors,” and laughingly tells me , “I am fast becoming ‘The Door Lady.’” However, she is not limiting herself to doors. Her newest work is using Prismacolor. After using the waxy colored pencil she mashes, the strokes and blends them together so “they play together nicely” in a technique called “Burnish.” Her favorite Prismacolor drawings feature the Vietnamese Gooseneck Gourds. These large 20x20 pieces of art are “minimal but very detailed.” In October of 2007, she completed 45 different pieces of work for another successful one- woman art show at the Performance Center in Selma, Alabama. She will be working with another artist to have a show again in the Center. This exhibit will focus on her mixed media pieces of work and her watercolors. When not preparing for shows, Peggy spends her time traveling, teaching workshops or creating pieces in her workspace, PM Brown Studio. “Door Corps” and “Up from the Depths” were recently chosen for an Top left: exhibition by the Montgomery “Gloriosa Lily” Museum of Fine Art for their silk painting Biennial Celebration. More work is showing at Selma Art Guild Gallery Top right: in Selma, Alabama and Black Belt “The Business End” Treasures, Camden, Alabama. Her Prismacolor one love “is to leave the viewer to determine what they see.” So what Center is it you see when you look at colors that appear to change, in a “Springtime” set of vibrant tulips titled, watercolor “Springtime” - or Santa Fe doors against an abstract Rio Grande Bottom left: Gorge in “John-Wayne Doesn’t Live “No Way Out” Here Anymore”? The choice is mixed media yours.
36 - The Art-to-Art Palette - Main Section - 2008-09 Fall/Winter Edition