Artists to Watch | Allen B. Brockbank - Southwest Art Magazine

Bringing the outside in

Allen B. Brockbank, Peaking Through the Clouds, oil, 20 x 40.

If you stare long enough at an Allen B. Brockbank landscape painting, you can practically sense the warm desert sun on your skin and feel the fresh mountain air in your lungs. Experiencing this Utah artist’s plein-air adventures vicariously is a joy for both the viewer and the creator, as Brockbank says that bringing the outside in and helping others feel his passion for place is a primary motivation for creating.

Brockbank’s interest in art was cultivated at a young age through his father’s love of nature and his mother’s profession as a watercolorist. Regular backpacking trips with his father through the West and landscape-painting lessons with his mother planted the seeds for his future. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and working in commercial art and computer game design for several decades, Brockbank eventually decided to devote his full attention to painting.

: Allen B. Brockbank, Above the Rio Grande, oil, 15 x 15.

: Allen B. Brockbank, Fall’s Gold, oil, 20 x 20.

: Allen B. Brockbank, Unsung Heroes, Monastery Road, oil, 15 x 15.

Now an avid participant in plein-air events and competitions, he has an ongoing opportunity to develop an appreciation for new locales. His love of chasing the light and communicating his observations on canvas provides constant inspiration and challenge. “Light’s elusive and fleeting quality can transform the landscape in a moment and be gone the next,” he says. “That urgency on-site gives an energy to the work that is hard to replicate in the studio.”

The painting PEAKING THROUGH THE CLOUDS resulted from just that kind of excitement, which Brockbank was able to effectively translate to a studio work. Last spring, while driving home from the Santa Fe Plein Air Fiesta—where he won Best of Show—he decided to take a detour to Telluride, CO, to scout locations and take reference photos for the upcoming Telluride Plein Air festival. “The mountains were still covered in snow and the terrain was beautiful, but the light remained flat and uninspiring,” he says. “Around sunset, I finally began to see a sliver of light on the side of the mountain, going in and out as the clouds parted. This continued for about 20 minutes, so I frantically followed the light in my truck, shooting as fast as I could focus.” The resulting painting won the Landscape Award of Excellence in Oil Painters of America’s Western Regional Exhibition last year—a testament to the artist’s all-in effort to capture the beauty of the outdoors. –Allison Malafronte