Welcome to the website of Brian Munn

Artist based in Ballan, Victoria

Brian Munn's time at Art School (Victorian College of the Arts, '72 -'74) was spent as a print maker. His previous two years employment in a photographic studio found its expression in playful, surrealistic, photo collages in screen printing and etching.

Following that period the focus shifted to drawing, particularly the landscape. Living in a farmhouse overlooking a fog filled valley near Cobden (Western Victoria), he fell under the spell of Samuel Palmer's 'Valley of Vision'.

Over time Brian’s work has slowly changed its emphasis. The earlier landscape drawings focused on the close rendering of specific places in western Victoria, especially the Crater Lakes near Colac, Mt Bolton west of Ballarat, and more recently, Pykes Reservoir near Bacchus Marsh.

Another Englishman, the poet Ted Hughes, continues to be a big influence and has served to temper the idyllic Palmeresque vision. Progressively, anthropomorphic transformations have emerged; the ambiguity of forms became more frequent. The more recent works see the faithful description of landscape becoming less important, as variously juxtaposed symbolic images begin to take over.