Water Valley artist captures life on canvas
Jan. 23—WATER VALLEY — In December 2020, Adrienne Brown-David was on a road trip to Memphis with her two oldest daughters.
She likes the time alone in the car with the girls because it gives her a chance to bounce ideas off them.
"I said I was thinking about doing a project in 2021, doing a small painting every day, and posting it on Instagram for, like, $100," Brown-David said. "My oldest said she thought it was a great idea, and it would be extra income."
So Brown-David put some feelers out on Instagram, and the response was immediate and positive. She should do this.
On Jan. 1, 2021, Brown-David created her first 5x7-inch painting, a portrait of her youngest child.
"I posted it on Instagram and it was up for 15 minutes before it sold," she said. "I got up at 7 the next morning, did another painting, and it sold in 30 seconds. On Day 3, my painting sold in five seconds. It blew up in a way I never expected."
Brown-David completed and sold 365 paintings in 2021. She didn't paint every day — if she knew she was going on vacation or to a conference, she'd create a surplus beforehand, so that she could still post a painting every day.
"By September, I was getting burned out," she said. "Even though people were asking me to do it again in 2022, I knew there was no way I could."
The experience helped the artist learn to streamline her portrait process — 95% of the paintings she created were portraits of her children. She found she could create something in two to three hours, and then get on with the rest of her day.
"I also learned a lot about my motivation and commitment to things," she said.
When the first day of 2022 rolled around, Brown-David was relieved she didn't have to paint on demand, but she also felt a bit lost.
"I was like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my time now," she said. "But when you work for yourself, you have to figure that out anyway."
She spent the first week of January sleeping, eating and watching TV.
"I needed that break after painting nonstop for a year," she said. "I didn't realize how physically tired I was, how physically taxing it was."
An early start
Brown-David, 43, was born and raised in St. Louis, the youngest of two children. She lived next door to her grandparents, and her grandfather was an artist, among other things.
"I watched him do everything, and he was my biggest fan, my greatest inspiration," she said. "If he thought I could do it, then I knew I could do it. As long as he liked what I did, nobody else's opinion mattered."
Brown-David started drawing when she was 4.
"My whole family nurtured my artistic side," she said. "My grandmaw always made sure I had crayons and something to draw on. My mother always gave me craft-related gifts on my birthday. When I was in middle school, my mom started volunteering at a Black art gallery, and that got me into art classes. All my electives in high school were in art. There was never any question that's what I was going to do with my life."
After high school, Brown-David spent a year at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, then headed back home to St. Louis for a couple of years, where she worked mostly in art-related jobs.
And then when she was 21, she took a vacation to the Virgin Islands to visit a friend.
"I loved it," she said. "I went back home to St. Louis for two months, then I packed up my stuff, sold all my artwork, bought a one-way ticket, and moved to St. Croix."
She met and married her husband, Taariq, there, and they had three daughters born on the island. They became the inspiration for her work. When she found out she was expecting a fourth child, the couple decided to move back to the States.
"My husband and I were trying to figure out where we wanted to go," she said. "We didn't want to take the kids from an island setting to a big city. All they knew was warm and green, and friendly people."
Brown-David had a cousin living in Oxford, so that's where they landed in 2008.
"When we first moved to Oxford, the kids were little — 7, 5, 2 and a newborn," she said. "I was home-schooling, so my time was limited. I didn't have time to paint. Most of the work I did was in a sketchbook while the kids were napping."
Brown-David had her first exhibit 10 years ago, and it featured what she was known for at the time: tiny house drawings.
"It's what I did when the kids were small," she said. "I needed to draw to keep me sane. But the work was small and easy to contain."
Brown-David didn't start painting portraits again until after the family moved to Water Valley about seven years ago. By that point, her kids were more self-sufficient. Now, the two oldest, Jena and Ashni, are in college, and Bijou is in high school. Brown-David continues to home school the youngest, Zion.
She mostly creates oil paintings, although she still does colored pencil drawings for her personal enjoyment. The majority of her paintings are portraits of her children, or other people's children or relatives, if she's working on a commissioned piece.
This year, she's planning to do monthly limited edition prints from paintings she showed at an exhibit last October at Southside Gallery in Oxford.
"I'll probably pick 12 from the show, and each one will be signed and numbered," she said. "And I still take commissions, but I'm booked until 2023. I only take two or three a month."
Brown-David said she never thought of her art in terms of being successful, or not being successful.
"Art is just always me," she said. "I paint so I can live. I have to create to survive. It keeps me alive and healthy. This is what I do every day, just like I breathe and eat and sleep every day. Art is who I am."
