Abstracting the Landscape with Bryan Young
My next interview is with Bryan Young, an artist based in Minneapolis. Bryan's paintings have gained attention across the U.S, and his work has been featured in the film "What is Life Worth?" starring Stanley Tucci and Michael Keaton. From landscape painting to collage work, Bryan discusses his journey as both a plein air painter and abstract artist. He shares his creative process, what inspired him to delve into abstraction, and offers advice for emerging artists who are hoping to find success in the art world.
Tell me about your background and how you initially became involved in the arts.
I have been involved in the creative process as long as I can remember. I use the term creative process because I don’t see a difference between creating visual art and other forms of creativity. I think I have a general curiosity about making things that lends itself to making things. It has taken me a long time to build that type of confidence in knowing that there are interesting ways to make things and if I pursue a course of creativity I will eventually find an outlet. Sort of pursuing an aesthetic that leads my work. The idea of Robert Pirsig’s book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the pursuit of quality.
From grade school to college I was involved in the visual arts either through classes or as a side project. After high school I studied art at Hope College and learned some interesting lessons from the program there. Not so much about how to make art but rather what the process should be like and what makes it interesting. This focus was labeled as a liberal arts degree and included philosophy, art, science and education. During college I studied art with an emphasis on painting, after college I was a sculptor for a number of years in stone and bronze and slowly drifted back to painting.
As a painter, you focus mainly on landscapes and waterscapes. What led you to paint the natural world?
When I got back into painting about 15 years ago I had some friends who were landscape painters and I had never studied that so I figured it would be worth my time. It was. I really learned a lot but it didn’t take long until my curiosity got the best of me.
I see my work as much broader than my Moving Water series. I have several series of works that I think are relevant to me and how I approach painting. My Night Ice series consists of oil paintings painted plein air in my car at night on location under the lights of a local hockey rink. I had the curator of drawing at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts collect a piece from that series. Another series involved ducks at the local creek. I spent months drawing and painting on location trying to capture something of the experience.
That led to the Moving Water series which opened up a whole new way of working and thinking. I began to experiment with paper.
That led me into my Lake Series which included more geometric uses of composition to convey the Great Lakes using a more regional palette. During that time my work attracted the attention of the director of the movie, “What is Life Worth?” starring Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci. The movie is based on the book by Kenneth Feinberg. It tells the story of the 9/11 litigation fund. Two of my pieces were purchased to hang in Michael Keaton’s (Feinberg's office).
Now I have expanded the creative process further to include the Hyland Hills series. I ski almost daily at Hyland Hills, a ski hill in south Minneapolis and love the colors of the kids ski gear contrasted with the natural environment of snow and cold. This led to a group of collages that have been fascinating to work on. They are really challenging and offer a wider palette range.
The thread that continues through them all is my curiosity and how to convey my experiences in a way that contains some quality.
I think I’m in a great place now to work in any way I choose. I have clients constantly contacting me with ideas that are really interesting and I find it very satisfying to hash out creative ideas and then bring them to life.
When painting water, you’re able to achieve a strong sense of visual movement in each piece. What compelled you to paint water, and what are some of the challenges with this subject matter?
The Moving Water Series was a way to paint water in a way that is moving. That was the point. Color and composition were not at the forefront of my mind in the traditional sense. I wanted to make the paint feel like it moves. Not the form of water or the reflection or the mood, just the movement.
Do you paint outdoors, from photographs, or a combination of both?
I painted on location for years. My Night Ice series was almost exclusively on location. After a couple winters of that I brought ideas into the studio and recreated some smaller plein air works. When I look at that series now I still really like some of the work but I have slowly moved away from working from life. The most recent example of this is my Hyland Hills series. I tried to recreate the visual experience representationally and it didn’t work so I reworked the idea as abstractions and am much more pleased with the outcome. Now I work almost exclusively in the studio.
In addition to painting, you also create collages using colored paper cut into geometric and organic shapes. What led you to collage work, and how is this work different or similar to your landscapes?
Before the collages I developed the Lake Series, my abstractions of the Great Lakes where I live. The Lake Series was initially a group of paintings but I slowly added collage to add detail, contrast or affect. This slowly began to transform into less geometric forms into more organic forms with the use of cut paper. The assembly became more the process for me and the feel of the work changed. I like both series and will continue to develop the ideas over time.
When did you join Instagram, and how has it impacted you as an artist?
I began my Instagram account a couple years ago. It provided a way to extend my audience. It has been much slower to grow than my studio though. I know the quality of work is high and content is valuable but Instagram has not extended my reach to the level where I would like it to be. I have been told this takes some time so we’ll see where it goes. My site has been great, however, and allowed me to reach a whole new clientele for my work.
What does the future hold for your painting?
I love what I’m doing now. My work continues to get stronger and there is a growing movement of collectors of my work. It has really been fun to see it grow and I plan on continuing to develop my paintings and collages.
How were you able to find success as a painter, and what advice would you give to emerging artists?
I have been working so long it’s hard to remember what it was like. When I started there was no internet and artists were almost exclusively tied to galleries. That isn’t the case anymore. Although there are more artists working, social media and self-made sites allow for artists to control their own work and to get it out to a larger audience. My suggestion to young artists would be to keep working and learning. There is great value in the process.