Daphne Francis Gallery

Jeannie Brown - 'Community Lives'

'Dreaming Of Jamaica'Oil Painting on Canvas

Paul the Pool Man

I came across Paul on visit to Digbeth. He was cleaning the dreary looking pool that used to be by the Custard Factory Reception area. I took some studies of him working after asking if it was ok and chatted to him for a while. He told me that he came originally from Jamaica where he had been a fisherman. It was a horrible day, wet and cold and he looked pretty fed up. I asked him if he missed Jamaica, his comment was that he missed it a thousand times a day, I didn’t expect him to say anything else.

The pool is now gone thankfully.

'Delores'Oil Painting on Canvas

'The Tailor - Digbeth Series'. Linocut

Anton the Tailor

Anton ran a tailoring business from one of the Custard Factory studio spaces next to my friends studio. I took some great studies away from that meeting which I went on to produce a series of linocut prints from, one of which made it into this years Print International Exhibition in Wrexham.

'Anton - Digbeth Series.' Linocut

Jeannie Brown's subjects are based on her interest in the environment and city and it’s cultural dynamics and integration.

Her work, both abstract and figurative, question the makeup of the city and its inhabitants.

Changing Faces constitutes her initial and ongoing body of work that expresses her interest in, and concentrates on the lives of ordinary people.

From the guy who cleans the pool and sweeps up, Anton running his tailoring business, to the couple who ran a business selling Brica-Brac from their shop, all at the Custard Factory in Birmingham's Digbeth area.

Browns prints and paintings are constructed using a variety of paints and wax including oils and acrylics. The mediums are carefully layered, taken back and then re layered to form the abstract patterns, shapes and figures in the work.

Browns layering and re-layering of her prints and paintings is a parallel to the regeneration that is constant and on-going within a city.

Brown is also interested in the elements of decay in structure and architecture and how change often dictates how areas are maintained or left to nature to reclaim.

The cultural make up or dynamic of an area may dictate the standard of decay and regeneration going on which brings into question social options, funding and poverty. And whether local individual initiatives are supported.

J D Francis