Larrie Brown creates art based on his experiences as an unprivileged youth in Jamaica. His careful mapping of each stroke of the paintbrush is reflective of his attention to detail and his cautiousness to conserve the resources he very seldom had as a child. He learned to use the finite resources he had at his disposal to create the environments and atmospheres necessary to craft the tones of his pictorial stories and intricate metaphors. He frequently depicts poverty and metamorphosis as parallels to the struggles he had to overcome as a child.
From his humble beginnings in Portland, Jamaica, Larrie Brown soon distinguished himself from other rising artists. He became the only student to manage his High school Art department. As if that were not enough, he went on to receive training as an Art teacher while in high school and taught Art at the Windsor Castle (Middle) School, while still in high school. After graduating from High School, he taught Art and managed the Art Department at the Buff Bay High School for one year. Later, he won the Jamaica All Island Art Competitions held at the prestigious Ward Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica. As the winner of this competition, he was awarded a scholarship to the Jamaica School of Art (now the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts), from which he graduated with distinction in 1983. It was customary for the Artist receiving this highest honor to again exhibit their work in the St Ann’s Bay Gallery‘s One-Man Exhibition Competition. Mr. Brown, having won this privilege, was unable to exhibit his graduation pieces in the St. Ann’s Bay Gallery because they were entirely sold out at graduation! He had to create all new pieces for the exhibition within the space of only three months. This display again won accolades in the local press for their freshness and originality. After this exhibition, he went on to display his work in several other prominent art galleries in Jamaica, including the National Gallery, which identified him as one of Jamaica’s outstanding young artist.
As a professional artist, Mr. Brown had various assignments and commissions, including descriptive drawings for the Jamaica Police Force Criminal Investigations Department. His talent so distinguished him from other local artists that he was commissioned by the Government of Jamaica to create portraits of several prominent political figures from Jamaica’s colonial past as well as of contemporary personalities, including prime ministers, national heroes, the Governor General and other prominent political leaders. Several of these portraits are now housed in the Jamaica National Trust. Mr. Brown migrated to the US in 1989 and continued his work as an artist of exceptional talent. His work represents a spectrum of styles from traditional to modern, and he is equally at ease rendering landscapes, portraits, still life, market scenes, seascape, river scenes and figurative drawings.