Cecily Brown: Contemporary Watercolor Painter

Cecily Brown is a British contemporary painter who combines figuration and abstract, utilizing influences from abstract expressionist painters such as de Kooning and Oskar Kokoschka. Brown uses
themes of sexuality and pushes them to their extreme. Making a statement saying the so called perfect
image of a women in society is a myth, Cecily states women are real and sex is not a completely
innocent and serene experience. From an early start in her artistic endeavors she experienced a number
of events in her life, which molded her perception pertaining to sexuality. These experience's are a
mixture of positive, negative and in between emotions which she exposes. The New York City art
scene combined with her being an artist and a women, lead to strong statements about sex and society.

The painting Torment of the Tablecloth, at first glance has no specific pattern. The elements seem to be
spastic, shapes interceding and colliding with each other. The painting is Cecily's artistic style of
abstract forms. The flowing brush strokes and broad amorphous forms, dark and light colors
complementing each other. Muted neutral colors balancing extremes of light and dark shapes. The
rendering looks to be nonsensical to the untrained eye. However upon closer scrutiny, there are some
discernible patterns that lead to understanding of the artist's intent. The painting is a mosaic, scene of
events in my opinion. The various shapes through closer inspection have a deeper meaning. I see a
dog or fox shaped creature, from my point of view at the center. Other human faced shapes can also be
recognized, these faces portray different emotions. Some appear sad others confused, the entire seen
feels to be a jumble of powerful emotions. Chaotic in nature but alluring, the message appears to be
that of horrific bliss. When I look at the image, I find my self enthralled and entrapped. Cecily Brown
is about expressing the rawness of sex destroying the widely excepted and expected, so called perfect
idolized image of female sexuality. This is an overlapping scene of figures intermingled with each
other. A constant wave of humanity influx which can appear to be both pleasurable and harmful.

—Estevan Puerto

Estevan Puerto is a graduate student attending SUNY Buffalo State in the Multidisciplinary M.A
program, with a concentration in Fine Arts and Art Education. His other accomplishments includes a
B.A in General Art with a Minor in sculpture, received at SUNY Buffalo State, 2005. A graduate
certificate in media studies from SUNY University at Buffalo, 2006. He later completed student
teaching, in the SUNY Buffalo State Post Baccalaureate Art ED Certification program in fall 2014.
Estevan is currently a Teacher's Aid at Buffalo Public School 3 “D'Youvill Porter Campus School