Alan Bray More Art

American, b. 1946

Alan Bray was born in Waterville, Maine, on January 12, 1946, but he grew up in Monson, a small slate-quarrying town set in the northern reaches of the Appalachians. It was here, hiking and camping with liked-minded childhood friends, that he began to exercise his natural inquisitiveness as a tool for building woods-craft. In these rugged foothills, ever alive with the turning of the seasons yet always plainly bearing the imprint of eons-old geologic upheaval, Bray learned to find his way around in a world of enigmatic signs and divergent trails. Unwittingly, before ever picking up a brush, he developed the sensibilities of a landscape painter by developing sensitivities to the relationships between the living and the ancient land on which life depends. Later, when Bray decided to study art formally, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Boston, where he first felt the appeal of image-making as a way of understanding the world. Three years of studio work revealed the need for a more traditional approach to the discipline of painting, one informed by the broader range of a liberal education, a revelation that prompted Bray to enroll at the University of Southern Maine, from which he graduated in 1971. While this education was in many ways a success – particularly in the way it engendered literacies in fields outside the fine arts – it was nevertheless incomplete: well-prepared now for the next leg of the journey, Bray traveled to Florence to study at Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Arts. Villa Schifanoia, Florence, the Italian Renaissance held many treasures and gave freely to a painter who was now mature enough in his art to receive them. Including a new medium and a new physical structure for his paintings –tempera on panel. The technical challenges of this medium, the necessary adjustments in craft, and the limitations of scale favored, and inspired, someone of a practical as well as a visionary intelligence. Bray paints in casein, a milk-based tempera that has virtually no drying time. Necessarily, his paintings are technically complex because they consist of thousands of tiny brush strokes, built up in layers, out of which the images – the vision – advance from the foundation of a mirror-smooth, absolute void of white ground. It is a method of painting that follows directly from his method of exploring his subjects.

Artist: Alan Bray

First Light, A Misty Morning Sunrise Scene in Maine with a Mountain View

By Alan Bray

Located in New York, NY

In First Light (2024), Alan Bray captures the quiet majesty of dawn over Spencer Pond, Maine. This luminous casein tempera on panel painting (15 x 24 inches) depicts a breathtaking s...

Category

2010s American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Casein, Panel

Alan Bray
First Light, A Misty Morning Sunrise Scene in Maine with a Mountain View, 2024

$11,000

A Whisper Breaks the Silence, A Poetic Wintry Landscape with Soft Blue and White

By Alan Bray

Located in New York, NY

In A Whisper Breaks the Silence (2024), Alan Bray masterfully captures the quiet majesty of a deep winter forest in Maine. This luminous casein tempera on panel painting (15 x 20 inc...

Category

2010s American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Casein, Panel

Alan Bray
A Whisper Breaks the Silence, A Poetic Wintry Landscape with Soft Blue and White, 2024

$10,400

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Jesse Aldana
There Might Be Something in the Water, Oil Painting, 2022

$4,600

H 36 in W 48 in D 1 in

Sunset at Moss Creek, Oil Painting

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Kent Sullivan expresses a marshland drenched in a warm sunset. "In the Evening crickets start to chirp and the glow of lat...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Kent Sullivan
Sunset at Moss Creek, Oil Painting, 2022

$2,200

H 16 in W 23 in D 1 in

Rising Tide, Oil Painting

By Jesse Aldana

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
"A late morning on a Malibu beach finds the tide nearly at its peak and the usually broad sands founder in a creamy froth," says artist Jesse Aldana. Sunlight...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Jesse Aldana
Rising Tide, Oil Painting, 2021

$950

H 18 in W 24 in D 1 in

Last Wave, Oil Painting

By Jesse Aldana

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Jesse Aldana paints a dramatic shoreline view of the Santa Monica Bay. A surfer lines up a final ride as evening deepens under heavy blanket clouds. In...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Jesse Aldana
Last Wave, Oil Painting, 2022

$725

H 16 in W 20 in D 1 in

Daydream 3

By Laura Browning

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
This piece was inspired by the desire to linger near or in warm tropical waters, watching the mesmerizing patterns of light refractions as they move with the currents.

About the Artist
Laura Browning...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Laura Browning
Daydream 3, 2018

$650

H 16 in W 16 in D 1.5 in

Beach Cloudscape VIII, Oil Painting

By Nancy Hughes Miller

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Working from observation and imagination, artist Nancy Hughes Miller paints an early morning coastal sky. A cloud moves across the ocean as the sunlight casts...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Nancy Hughes Miller
Beach Cloudscape VIII, Oil Painting, 2022

$3,100

H 30 in W 48 in D 1.5 in

Glitter, Oil Painting

By Jesse Aldana

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
The last rays of the sun descend in artist Jesse Aldana's striking realist seascape. He captures the green flash, a notoriously ephemeral moment at sunset. Gr...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Jesse Aldana
Glitter, Oil Painting, 2022

$5,200

H 48 in W 48 in D 2 in

Beauty Within, Oil Painting

By Jo Galang

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Jo Galang paints bright yellow flowers growing in the forest. Abundant green ferns fill the natural surroundings. She demonstrates beauty and splendor ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Jo Galang
Beauty Within, Oil Painting, 2022

$900

H 20 in W 16 in D 0.62 in

Shoreline Cloudscape, Oil Painting

By Nancy Hughes Miller

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Nancy Hughes Miller paints a majestic seaward skyline with tinges of periwinkle. Inspired by her time on the coasts of North Carolina, she displays a d...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Nancy Hughes Miller
Shoreline Cloudscape, Oil Painting, 2022

$3,100

H 30 in W 48 in D 1.5 in

Seabreeze Journey, Oil Painting

By Gail Greene

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
A soft burst of pastels paints the evening sky in this delightful seascape by artist Gail Greene. "A setting sun creates a mystic feeling of enchantment," sha...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Gail Greene
Seabreeze Journey, Oil Painting, 2021

$1,075

H 30 in W 24 in D 1.5 in

Redwoods on a Foggy Coast, Oil Painting

By Jesse Aldana

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
"As foggy headlands shift shape on the horizon, redwoods materialize out of a palette of grays and blues in this painting of California's Big Sur," says artis...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Jesse Aldana
Redwoods on a Foggy Coast, Oil Painting, 2022

$750

H 20 in W 16 in D 1 in

Park Sunset, Oil Painting

Located in San Francisco, CA

Artist Comments
Artist Shuxing Fan exhibits a picturesque sunset from a neighborhood park in classical painting style. He captures the last rays of...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray More Art

Materials

Oil

Shuxing Fan
Park Sunset, Oil Painting, 2021

$2,075

H 24 in W 30 in D 1.38 in

Alan Bray more art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Alan Bray more art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Alan Bray in casein paint, paint, panel and more. Not every interior allows for large Alan Bray more art, so small editions measuring 20 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Jesse Aldana, Jenn Williamson, and Jay Jensen. Alan Bray more art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $10,400 and tops out at $11,000, while the average work can sell for $10,700.