ournal

A PORTRAIT OF PEGGY MILBURN-BROWN

 “Door Corps”
Series Three - mixed media

"Their shape is a symbol. They could represent so

many phases that one could go through in life's journey.
A closing, a new beginning, a passage or transition--so
many possibilities."

34 - The Art-to-Art Palette - Main Section - 2008-09 Fall/Winter Edition

 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