Meet the Artist

Sean Brennan is an artist based out of Hendersonville, NC. He creates oil paintings highlighting the intricate patterns found in nature. Through his work, he illuminates the connections we all share with the natural world and with one another. In our time of increasing divisions and isolation, Sean hopes to remind himself and others how much we all still share both as people and as stewards of our planet.

There are two main inspirations for Sean’s unique painting style. The first—the subject matter—is a result of an upbringing which fostered a strong connection to the forest as a result of many excursions into Kentucky woodlands, wherein either his father or grandfather would teach him the names and uses of plants and the ways of different animals. These experiences are distilled in memories of dragonflies zipping around and the magic of a canopy of sunlit leaves overhead.

The second inspiration is of technique. Sean has long been a student of Chinese language and culture, leading to some years spent in China studying ancient Chinese thought, and by extension, its underpinnings of classical Chinese landscape painting. The combination of controlled brushwork here
with chaotic free-flowing expressive strokes there struck Sean as a perfect contrast of technique to illicit the wonder of the natural world he feels.

These two main roots come together to shape an original style which emphasizes the two-dimensional-ness of the painting surface with opaque, colorful subjects and ethereal backgrounds showing the fibers of the canvas. Over the past several years Sean has continued to develop his style and plans to keep pushing the boundaries of its expressive limits.