Alan Bray 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.to
1
4
7
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
11
4
7
3
1
8
7
6
4
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
10
9
9
9
1
11
7,820
5,167
2,504
1,501
9
11
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 Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Fallow, Rustic Farmhouse Landscape Painting in Maine, Autumn Fields, Elm Tree
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
As the artist states about this painting: "I first photographed this farm because it had one of the last living Elm trees in our area. Most began dying in the 70's and there are very...
Category
2010s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
A Rise, blue and green casein on panel impressionist waterscape painting, 2004
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Bray has explored a smaller, more demure 8.5 x 11 inch format for two of these casein on panel paintings. When coupled with his rich palette and tightly hatched bed of brushstrokes, ...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein
Clearing Off, contemporary Impressionist casein landscape painting
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Alan Bray’s landscape paintings of his native, central Maine explore the ever-ebbing dynamic between nature and humanity. His paintings capture an asymmetrical pas de deux. Painted with uncompromising precision by his quick-drying casein tempera paint, Bray’s trailheads, shorelines, and vast horizons show evidence of previous human presence as it succumbs to natural growth.
Bray’s stylized scenes center on these afterimages of human interference as well as other natural phenomena. Inundated with detail, nature reclaims swaths of scarred land, fallen trees, and dilapidated structures, returning them to their wild form. Natural phenomena such as wild overgrowth, animal tracks, mysterious forms, bogs, and mist are resplendently captured as homage to the rugged and uninhabited corners of secluded Maine.
Alan Bray builds his landscapes with numerous layers of quick-drying casein tempera. Often used in Italian Renaissance painting...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Neighbors Snowy branches, bird nests, gnome-like forms casein tempera painting
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Alan Bray’s Neighbors is a masterful casein tempera painting capturing the quiet beauty of winter. Delicate, snow-covered branches contrast against a crisp blue sky, while two bird n...
Category
2010s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Relic, Mystical Woodland Scene with Reflections and Mystery, Surreal Landscape
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
From the artist: The water tank in the painting was purchased by a farmer (neighbor) from a tanning mill that had closed and repurposed as a spring fed tank for holding water for the...
Category
2010s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Encaustic, Panel
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 Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Woodshed Spencer Pond Camps, a Black and White Drawing of a Wood Pile in Forest
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
This original graphite drawing by Alan Bray captures a meticulously stacked woodshed in a tranquil forest setting. With fine detail and precision, Bray’s work evokes the quiet beauty...
Category
2010s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Graphite
Alan Bray, Nest in a Nest, 2023, impressionist casein nature nest painting
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
For Alan Bray's Nest in a Nest (also known as Rebuilt Nest), this painting captures the delicate, yet powerful theme of renewal and resilience in nature. The bird's nest, constructed...
Category
2010s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Alan Bray, Windblown, 2023, impressionist casein nature nest painting
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
The latest painting from Alan Bray is a rare and exotic sighting, indeed. He’s shifted his focus away from the human realm and up to the skies, capturing an empty bird’s nest camoufl...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Hermit Thrush, impressionist casein nature painting of eggs in bird nest
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
A narrative from the artist:
"It belonged to a Hermit Thrush, which has one of the most beautiful songs in all of nature. Give it a listen on Audubon. A...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Related Items
Colliers Magazine 1947 American Scene Social Realism Modern Families in the Snow
Located in New York, NY
Colliers Magazine 1947 American Scene Social Realism Modern Families in the Snow
Katherine Wiggins (American 20th Century)
"The Shrimp"
20 x 24 inch...
Category
1940s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Masonite, Egg Tempera
As the Days Wash Over Me Egg Tempera 12 x 24 Portraiture Finalist PSA
By E. Melinda Morrison
Located in Houston, TX
As the Days wash over Me‐ Egg Tempera ‐ Tempera Prepped Aluminum panel ‐ 12 x 24 is by E. Melinda Morrison who lives in Fort Worth Texas. Also posted are other paintings available b...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Egg Tempera
Fishing for Breakfast 8" x 10" Gouache on Illustrated Board Renaissance Wax
By E. Melinda Morrison
Located in Houston, TX
Fishing for Breakfast 8" x 10" Gouache on Illustrated Board Finished with Renaissance Wax
Gouache (/ɡuˈɑːʃ, ɡwɑːʃ/; French: [ɡwaʃ]), body color,[a] or opaque watercolor is a wat...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Egg Tempera, Panel
Maine Morning
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Beautiful winter landscape by American artist, J. Philip Richards (1906-1991). Maine Morning, 1974. Casein on paper, 16 x 26 inches; 26 x 36 inches framed. Signed lower right. Signed, titled and dated on verso. Excellent condition.
Born in Moosic, PA, and graduated from the College of Fine Arts of Syracuse University in New York, J Philip Richards worked and studied with such artists of international reputation as William Von Schlagell, James Fitzgerald, David Porter, and John Taylor.He was professor emeritus of Fine Arts at Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Member of the American Watercolor Society, NYC, NY; York Artists Association, York, ME; Ogunquit Art Association, Ogunquit, ME; Wyoming Valley Art League, Wilkes-Barre, PA; National Society of Casein Painters, NYC, NY; Director Ancestor's Art Workshops, Searsport, ME; Gallery Director, "Gallery 164," Kennebunk, ME; Professional Artists League of America, NYC, NY; Art Guild of Kennebunks, Kennebunk, ME; Maine Artists...
Category
1970s Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein
Charleston Harbor
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist Comments
Looking towards the sun and realistically painting the natural elements as the eye perceives them is a challenge. Kent Sullivan enjoys bringing the appearance of that sun-washed eye-squinting moment. He found Charleston Harbor...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Oil
Nada Extraño Nothing Strange - Contemporary Figurative Landscape Encaustic, 2024
By Cecile Chong
Located in Kent, CT
A peaceful landscape scene in shades of pale blue and light yellow accented with teal blue, yellow and orange sculptural details along the lower part of the composition.
Tall, grac...
Category
2010s Contemporary Alan Bray Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Encaustic, Panel
Oil Painting, Lawrence Kelsey, Central Park, Spring Afternoon
By Lawrence Kelsey
Located in White Plains, NY
'Central Park, Spring Afternoon' 2009 by American artist, Lawrence Kelsey. Oil on panel, 19.5 x 13.5 in. / Handmade gold frame: 24 x 18 in. Depicting a view of Central Park in New Yo...
Category
Early 2000s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Oil, Panel
Making Room - Encaustic Landscape Figure Child Table Still Life Tree, 2016
By Cecile Chong
Located in Kent, CT
In this contemporary encaustic (pigmented beeswax) painting on panel, a peaceful landscape scene in shades of pale sky blue and light yellow accented with teal blue sculptural detail...
Category
2010s Contemporary Alan Bray Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Encaustic, Panel
Old Mill Point, Cape Cod, Mass
Located in Milford, NH
A fine naive landscape painting with a windmill by American artist Janet Munro (b. 1949). Munro was born in Woburn, MA, and her work focuses o...
Category
1980s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Oil, Egg Tempera, Board
"Shoes" - Late 20th Century City Figure Painting
Located in New Orleans, LA
In addition to having his work in museums and fine corporate collections, Alabama artist Donny Finley showed for years at prestigious Bryant Galleries on ...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Oil
"Coral Cove Rock" oil painting, beach sunbathers gathering around large boulder
By Carl Bretzke
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Coral Cove Rock" is an oil painting by contemporary artist, Carl Bretzke. Coral Cove is located in Jupiter Florida, known for it's large rocks along the b...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Oil, Linen, Panel
"Cape Cod" oil painting by American Impressionist, blue seascape w grey clouds
By Marc Dalessio
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
Painted en plein air, in Cape Code, Massachusetts. Clouds float in layers above a foreground of shoreline, where a cove of sea meets sand.
Marc Dalessio was born in 1972 in Los Ange...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Oil, Panel
Previously Available Items
Larch, Golden Trees Reflected in Lake with Pine Forest in Autumn Light
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Golden larch trees, autumn reflections, and tranquil forest lakes—this luminous painting captures a fleeting moment in nature with remarkable clarity and emotional depth. The golden ...
Category
2010s American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
H 16 in W 20 in D 2 in
Trails, casein on panel impressionist Maine winter landscape, 2020
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
An homage to the Appalachian Trail, Bray’s latest deep-winter scene considers the difference between human intent and animal instinct. White blazed t...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Sentinel, green and pink casein on panel impressionist landscape painting, 2020
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
In Sentinel, Alan Bray’s layers of casein marks appear to emerge from beneath the space of the panel - the forest haze seeping up rather than resting upon the surface. The sentinel, ...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Spring House, Impressionist casein Maine winter landscape painting, 2018
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Bray has explored a smaller, more demure 8.5 x 11 inch format for two of these casein on panel paintings. When coupled with his rich palette and tightly hatched bed of brushstrokes, ...
Category
2010s Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Alan Bray, Abandoned Spring, Casein on panel landscape painting, 2018
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
In this casein on panel painting, Abandoned Spring, Alan Bray depicts the lush inner landscape of his native Maine. Bray uses his quick-drying paint to great effect, defining the spidery, tendril-like fingers of the emerald foliage as they overtake the water. The artist's paintings combine a sense of discovery with the meditative maturity of the Italian Renaissance masters. Bray also imposes a strangeness and a sense of place with rhythmic craggy, bent or curved natural objects painted as though from a dream state. "The way his uncanny narratives lean away from the rational," writes art critic Daniel Kany, "Bray is like the Edward Gorey of Maine landscape painting...
Category
2010s American Impressionist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
H 19.75 in W 19.75 in D 2.25 in
Alan Bray, Clearcut with Wildlife Trees, Casein landscape painting, 2015
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Alan Bray paints landscape scenes in his native Maine using casein tempera paint on wood panel. Bray is fascinated by man-made structures in the wilderness disintegrating as the land...
Category
2010s Contemporary Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Alan Bray, Hillside, Casein on panel landscape painting, 2016
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Alan Bray paints landscape scenes in his native Maine using casein tempera paint on wood panel. Bray is fascinated by man-made structures in the wilderness disintegrating as the land...
Category
2010s Contemporary Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel, Wood Panel
Corduroy Road
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
These kinds of woods roads are called Corduroy roads, laid down to traverse wet spots and boggy places. I came across this one in a large stand of Tamarack, which shed their needles ...
Category
2010s Contemporary Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Panel
Alan Bray, Ghost, landscape lithograph on Rives BFK, 2012
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
In "Ghost," the remnants of an old farmhouse foundation, now grown over with small trees and patchy grasses shows the endurance and indifference of nature; standing in mute testimony...
Category
2010s Contemporary Alan Bray Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Lithograph
Wet Spot
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
Alan Bray captures a winter sunset landscape scene with wheat fields and a stream near his home in Maine. The mirror-smooth surface of the water, contrasting with the water in other ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Wood Panel
Drowned Forest, Casein Tempera on Panel, Landscape Painting
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
In Drowned Forest, 2014, a group of gray, gnarly tree stumps, some hosting green plants living within them, are in the midst of silver water spanning the entire picture plane. In the...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Casein, Wood Panel
Alan Bray, Four Things in the Wind, charcoal and conte landscape drawing, 2015
By Alan Bray
Located in New York, NY
In Four Things in the Wind, Bray draws in charcoal and Conté crayon to create the shore of a river on a windy day. The artist utilizes his bendy, rhythmic style to animate the eleme...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Alan Bray Art
Materials
Conté, Charcoal, Archival Paper
Alan Bray art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Alan Bray art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Alan Bray in casein paint, paint, tempera and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the Impressionist style. Not every interior allows for large Alan Bray art, so small editions measuring 18 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Samuel Hyde Harris, Stephen Motyka, and Edward Henry Potthast. Alan Bray art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $7,200 and tops out at $12,000, while the average work can sell for $11,000.