Hugh Boycott Brown (1909 - 1990)
He was born in Bushey in Hertforshire where his father Allan Robert Brown was the Art Master at the Royal Masonic School. He originally studied at the Marguerite Frobisher School in Bushey. In 1929 he started teaching at the Royal Masonic Junior School, but he also continued studying art in the evenings at Watford School of Art and he attended Heatherly School in the Holidays where he was taught by Frederic Whiting and Bernard Adams. In the 1930’s he became friends with Sir John Arnesby Brown (No Relation) who was a great encouragement to him and William Henry David Birch who were both great influences on him. By this time he had already started his long association with East Anglia, and particularly the coast.
He began painting outside quite early on, capturing the changes of colour and light, he was particularly interested in cloud formations and apparently he kept detailed charts linking the prevailing winds with particular formations so he could capture them at their optimum. He is also known for painting sailing barges and other craft on the seas and estuaries of Suffolk and Norfolk.
In the Second World War he joined the RAF and served in Intelligence as an officer serving in
India, South Africa, Burma and Northern Ireland. In 1947 he bought a cottage at Blakeney on the North Norfolk Coast so he could paint his Norfolk Scenes in his holidays and days off. When he retired in 1970 he bought a cottage near Saxmundham in Suffolk and he continued to paint right up to his death in 1990. He often painted in Oils on small panels and signed his name with initials, HBB. (Not to be confused with the artist Hercules Brabazon Brabazon who signed his work in the same way.)
He exhibited widely in London and East Anglia as well as the USA, at galleries including the Royal Academy (RA), the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA), Royal institure of painters in Oils (ROI) and the Royal institute of painters in Watercolours (RI) in London and at the Phaoenix Gallery, Lavenham, Deben Gallery, Woodbridge, Reade’s Gallery and Aldeburgh in East Anglia. In 1986 the Begrave Gallery had a solo Exhibition and in 1991 Abbot and Holder held a memorial exhibition. He was a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) and the Wapping Group. His work is held in the Bushey Museum and Art Gallery and the National Maritime Museum.
