Sunset on Speedway, acrylic on canvas, 24" x 36"

Brockman studied fine art at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL.  His earlier work, a large volume of heavy collage style pieces on cardboard boxes, was influenced by living and working in New York City during the mid to late nineties.  Brockman seamlessly moved into canvas in February of 2003, producing the new body of Los Angeles streetscape paintings.

Jay Brockman’s streetscapes are reminiscent of Ed Ruscha's early Hollywood series with orange skies and contrasting landscapes but deviate with a unique use of perspective as viewed by a traveling motorist. From afar, the paintings offer a photographic quality which upon closer examination is cleverly contrasted by concise and gestural brushstrokes. Balancing between realist and painterly, Brockman creates the illusion of space by providing subtle and effective indicators of what the viewer expects to see in the depths of the familiar streetscapes.

 

“Jay Brockman’s work lies within the great tradition of landscape painting.  He does however, give it a decidedly 21st century twist with it’s contemporary urban LA landscape viewed from a car, which is how one views landscapes in LA.  Jay’s work captures a particular feel of LA the way Hockney or Ruscha does.”

Andy Moses, contemporary Los Angeles artist, Ocotber 2003