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These pages are in the process of being created -- check back for updates.

NOTE: These pages are best viewed on a screen larger than a cell phone in order to really see the paintings. It's important to take your time looking at these paintings, to go slowly and let your eyes and brain digest them over time. I've never been interested in making paintings that reveal themselves easily or that are about one thing. I've always loved paintings that can be discovered and then rediscovered, seeing different things each time you look at them. This website is going to be here for a long time so you can take your time, which will make a huge wonderful difference in the end.

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Joseph Browning Paintings 062
No. 062 - At Night In Our Sleeping Bags We Await The Bear's Return
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 9 in. x 12 in.
Tuesday 6/5/1990 - Collection of the Artist

Christopher and I found a spot by the Yosemite River to camp where there weren't any other people. It had a device that allowed you to hang your food and other scented items up between two trees where a hungry bear couldn't access it. Otherwise it was just he and I, some fallen trees and some large granite rocks along the river's edge. Long story short is it was early in the season, some snow was still present in lower altitude areas, and a fresh from hibernation bear smelled what we were cooking at dusk and came down from the hillside to confront us and our hastily hung food. The bear was persistent and it got very scary as we were completely alone and it was getting darker. Chris kept reminding me that we were in the bear's territory and the bear knew how to navigate the terrain much better than we did. Chris managed to scare off the bear and once it was fully dark we both hesitantly entered our flimsy tent to try and sleep. Of course there wasn't much sleeping to be had, especially when the bear came back and actually walked around the tent sniffing and grunting in a final desperate hunt for anything with a food-like scent...




Joseph Browning Paintings 063
No. 063 - Guitarist
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 9 in. x 12 in.
Tuesday 6/5/1990 - Collection of the Artist




Joseph Browning Paintings 064
No. 064 - Sometimes Fear
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 9 in. x 12 in.
Tuesday 6/5/1990 - Collection of the Artist




Joseph Browning Paintings 065
No. 065 - The Accuracy Of Primitive Science
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 9 in. x 12 in.
Tuesday 6/5/1990 - Private Collection




Joseph Browning Paintings 066
No. 066 - Illiterate
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 9 in. x 12 in.
Tuesday 6/8/1990 - Collection of the Artist

This painting continues the concerns I wrote about Painting 059 The Artist Reviewing His Latest regarding its simplicity and ease of execution. With 066 Illiterate the lack of paint and the abundance of open white space definitely bothered me, at first. Again I wondered if it was a valid painting. Again I didn't know if I could allow myself to get away with the audacity of leaving so much open space - I can't stop here, I thought, it rails against everything I've done up to this very moment! But I liked what it was without anything else being added. It was already perfect and dare I say, finished. And like Painting 059, I look at this painting today and still feel a little uneasy about it. Which I suppose is what gives it such power, at least for me.




Joseph Browning Paintings 067
No. 067 - I Told You So
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 9 in. x 12 in.
Tuesday 6/14/1990 - Collection of the Artist




Joseph Browning Paintings 068
No. 068 - Beyond The Confines Of Reason
Broken Canvas No. 9
Acrylic on canvas, cotton and wood - 36 in. x 30 in.
Tuesday 3/12/1991 - Collection of the Artist

This Broken Canvas was interesting because it was the first truly symmetrical composition I created, and may be the only symmetrical painting out of all 300 I made! Because of the symmetry, creating the composition was much easier than with every other Broken Canvas, as I had fewer choices I had to make about what to paint and where to paint it.

The mixing together of a two-dimensional flat painted picture with three-dimensional painted sculptural pieces creates a tension that fights the viewer's eyes as well as their interpretation of what the painting is about. Since this Broken Canvas painting is abstract it may create even more tension than if it were representational, because the hybrid composition is not directly representing anything definite. So it has to exist by itself, apart from traditional painting definitions, and stand alone as an entirely new definition of what a painting can be.




Joseph Browning Paintings 069
No. 069 - Portrait of Daniel
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 12 in. x 9 in.
Sunday 7/15/90 - Collection of the Artist

Like a lot of my paintings, this so-called portrait did not start out as a portrait but instead evolved into a portrait, of sorts. Adding the eye, the bridge of the nose and lips quickly made it into a face with a head-like shape around it and then I saw Daniel my brother in there. I didn't plan on his arrival nor did I argue with his identification once it was made. I had no objection but was rather pleased that he showed up so unexpectedly. I didn't make any changes or adjustments once he appeared and so was happy when he looked out at me and quietly let me know he was finished.




Joseph Browning Paintings 070
No. 070 - You Must First Climb The Stairs Before You Can Descend
Acrylic on watercolor paper - 9 in. x 12 in.
Sunday 7/15/1990 - Private Collection

All of the paintings made thus far on 12 in. x 9 in. (or 9 in. x 12 in.) watercolor paper were completed without any corrections or re-painting. I was able to start each painting with simple random brushstrokes and then add areas of solid colors and lines to create the final compositions you see herein. These are all paintings that I did not think about prior to making them, nor did I try to make them into something other than what I originally started with - a few brushstrokes and my imagination. I'm rather proud of what developed in each of them, given I didn't allow myself to re-paint or correct any potential mistakes. Sort of like making a drawing in pencil without ever erasing, but without any kind of pressure or expectation of their outcome. I don't recall even considering that I might make a mistake, which obviously made creating them much easier and more fun.




Joseph Browning


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