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William Brody
USA
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“I want to paint the joy in life and leave the politics and negativity to others.”
William Brody, as he likes to be known, is an American artist who has been painting for over 55 years. Rather than just painting a pretty picture, he wants to breathe life and emotion into a scene. The old cliche "Stop and smell the roses" is a mantra that Brody follows.
An American Dream | Acrylic
$1,200
18 X 24
This house is located in Davisburg, Michigan. The barn here had been renovated and was in great shape, unlike many in the area. I stopped to ask permission to take photos. While walking around to find the right angle, I came across this porch. It spoke to me, and I thought while looking at it with the barn in the background that this had to be someone's dream house.
William Brody was born in Terra Haute, Indiana, in 1951, where he spent his first two years. From there, it was Chicago, Harvey, Illinois, Breckenridge, Michigan, and then back to Harvey. It was during his years at Harvey that he got his start in the arts. "I remember looking at prints of paintings on my grade school walls and thinking how they did that."
While The Sun Shines | Acrylic
$1,600
18 X 24
I found this barn in Western Michigan, and was drawn to how the light played within the barn and across the field.
William struggled in school, and it was hard for him to focus in a structured setting. Then in the 6th grade, in art class, things changed. He was doing a painting in watercolors and ran out of brown in his tin of colors while doing a tree trunk. "I remember asking my teacher about my problem and wondering if I could use red." She said it was his painting, and he could use whatever color he wanted. From that point on, things got better at school, and he had better focus.
"I've come full circle in regards to being a realistic painter."
In high school, things got better. At Thornton Township High School, they had an outstanding art department. They went on a field trip to the Chicago Art Institute, and that sealed the deal. William remembers seeing Edward Hopper's "Night Hawks" and saying, "I want to do that." He dropped out of band and track and used that time, as well as any study halls, to go to the art classroom to work. This led to a summer scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Witness | Acrylic
$1,500
18 X 24
This is a tree down the block from me in Holly, Michigan. I went out in search of something to paint during that time of year between winter and spring when nothing is growing and colors are limited. It reminded me of the trees in my old neighborhood, where I would spend hours watching ants go up and down. Made me wonder how much that tree witnessed over all these years,
This house is in Milford, Michigan, and was called out to be painted. The garden and the house are like a great married couple who have grown old together.
Milford House | Acrylic
$1,700
24 X 32
His world came tumbling down as his family moved to Holly, Michigan, during his senior year of high school. When left to his own devices, he experimented with many genres of art. After high school, he went on to Flint Junior College and later to Northern Michigan University, but never got a degree.
"To really see something is to take time and study it. Painting in a realistic style forces you to take that time to study. The use of light and shadow is what brings out the emotion in my work."
"We all have memories stored away within us, where details may be foggy. If the sky is a certain way or a shadow on a house is just so, it might trigger a memory or a dejavu of events in your life."
At 20, he got married and got a job at a state mental hospital, and his style was semi-abstract, reflecting where he worked. Over the next 20 years, his work fluctuated but mostly floundered.
Cafe | Acrylic
$1,100
24 X 18
On a trip out west, I found this beauty on a chopped-up section of old Route 66 in New Mexico. I found it to be a reflection of myself. A life well lived, where I have wrinkles it has rust.
He raised a family with his wife and three boys, but around 1990 he had an awakening. He started painting more; the subjects were things from his past but presented in an empty space. It was taking something real and detailed and putting it in a setting like his 1970s paintings.
Hometown | Acrylic
$1,500
18 X 24
Most small towns have a place where folks tend to gather, sometimes in large groups, sometimes just as a couple or a solitary soul just wanting to sit and watch a sunset.
William, in his paintings, wanted to get a feeling of his boyhood days, but it wasn't quite working. He wanted that vision when you close your eyes and see clearly, but it disappears the moment you open them. He found it by painting a whole scene and using the lights and darks to give it the feeling he was looking for.
At times I like to focus on smaller areas of, say, a building. This is part of an old mental health hospital I worked at right before it was torn down. The title "122" is the years it stood. I had to climb on a roof to get this intimate view to show how the years have touched this spot.
122 | Acrylic
$1,500
18 X 24
“I remember thinking that all I ever wanted is to be an artist and that I never really did but put forth my work.”
Curtain Call | Acrylic
$1,400
24 X 18
In Seiigman Arizona there is a strip of the old Route 66 that has a host of tourist attractions, At the end of the street was a soft serve ice cream shop. As I sat and ate my cone in the patio area, I was looking at the collection of old signs they had sitting around. I couldn't help feeling that in a way, these old advertisements were taking their own kind of curtain call.
In 2000, he retired from the state and has devoted his full time to painting. Since 1992, he has won many national awards and has become an elected member of both the Audubon Artists and the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic.
I have been working on a series of scenes from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This is one of them. Over the past 10 years or more, I have taken trips based only on directions. My wife finds places to stay. The purpose of these trips is to find things to paint and to discover more of America. With this scene, we found each other.
Among The Rocks | Acrylic
$1,500
18 X 24
He is a signature member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society, of which he has been a member since 1994. His work has appeared in many magazines, books, newspapers, online forums, and television shows. His work is in collections in most of the 50 states as well as far away in Bangkok.
Inside Looking Out | Acrylic
$1,100
18 X 24
On a trip to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, I visited the old lighthouse building. Normally I would paint the outside of the building, but on a hot day, I liked the view from inside.
"Starting in 1992, I began exhibiting again and entering many juried shows."
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