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The Hay House : Step Right In!
October 9 - November 14, 2004

This exhibition is sponsored by Hoffman Audi and Citizens Bank.

A House Made of Hay and Imagination

David Brown inside The Hay House

David Brown built this life-size replica of his extraordinary Old Saybrook house, calling it a “visual Walden.” Brown has lived in the original Hay House – the oldest dwelling of its kind east of the Mississippi River – since 1986. The Saybrook Hay House is made of bales of hay covered with stucco and was built in the 1970s.  Brown’s life there is relatively simple. He has books and a kerosene stove, but no electricity or indoor plumbing. He raises most of his own food and sells some of it at local farmers markets. He has a large studio on his property where he paints, but he also paints en plein air, in the tradition of the painters of the Lyme Art Colony. 

The Hay House exterior

The Hay House interior

Brown painted the exterior of the replica with views of the house and property in four different seasons. The interior is painted with trompe-l’oeil depictions of Brown’s furniture and other belongings. 

Brown drew on his experience in Asia in creating the Community Mandala. A mandala is, by one definition, a circle containing images of deities who symbolized the universe, totality, or wholeness in Hinduism and Buddhism. Brown spent time in Nepal when he was in his twenties and the experience had a tremendous impact on him. Brown’s mandala includes 20 portraits of “community heroes,” everyday people important in Brown’s life. Each person was asked to give himself or herself a label. Each chose an identity they wished to be known by, at least in this context.  Uncle, helper, writer, volunteer, doctor, teacher – these are roles that are significant in Brown’s world, in the subject’s world, in ours.

Fifty-two X Two

These series of paintings were created over the space of a year, a morning and evening each week on the property of the Saybrook Hay House. As the Impressionists were, Brown is very attuned to light and how it changes what we see. Fifty-two views at dawn and fifty-two views at dusk offer a portrait of Brown’s Saybrook property over the course of a year. This is the first time these series have been on public view.