Gregory Douglas Brown (born October 23, 1951, died August 29, 2014) is an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and native of

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

, best known for his ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s in the

San Francisco Bay area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

.JIMWICh - Greg Brown's Palo Alto Murals

Biography

He was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, but was still a child when he moved to Palo Alto, California. At age 13, he became a pupil of artist Roberto Lupetti. He went to

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...

, and graduated in 1969. He was the city of Palo Alto's first Artist in Residence. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), with help from the city of Palo Alto funded Brown's 1970s murals. The first Palo Alto mural by Brown was created in 1975. The ''

'' murals "Palo Alto Pedestrian Series" located in downtown Palo Alto feature imagery such as aliens, burglars, animals, and normal people.

References

21st-century American painters Living people 1951 births American male painters People from Palo Alto, California Palo Alto High School alumni Trompe-l'œil artists {{US-painter-stub