0108 - Andy Brown
Andy Brown is an award-winning British artist who has traveled the world painting ballparks and baseball games live, along with the many people who surround them. During our conversation, he referenced a handful of things and people upon which you may want to do more research. Consider this page to be your “liner notes” for the episode so you can follow along.
Andy Brown and me after recording our interview in my old living room in Skokie, Illinois.
Andy at the Field of Dreams
Imagine my surprise when I finished recording the interview with Craig Purcell at the Field of Dreams Movie Site, to turn around and see Andy Brown painting the landscape.
An Artist’s View
Andy painting one of the multiple pieces he ended up completing at the Field of Dreams.
The Finished Piece
From the photo above, here is the final version.
Buy it HERE
Target Field
The home of the Twins was Andy’s 14th MLB ballpark out of 30. He painted it on August 19, 2019.
Buy it HERE
Dwier Brown
Dwier Brown’s 2014 book If You Build It... is a funny and moving memoir about Fathers, Fate and Field of Dreams.
The podcast Andy listened to on his drive to the Field of Dreams, which featured an interview with Dwier Brown, was an episode of The Moonlight Graham Show.
The entrance to the Field of Dreams Movie Site
Andy with the Ghost Players
Andy just happened to catch the Ghost Players during their last performance of the 2019 season when he visited the Field of Dreams on Sunday, August 18.
Albuquerque Isotopes
Andy visited Albuquerque to watch the Isotopes play the Salt Lake Bees on July 28, 2019.
Daegu Samsung Lions Park
Andy painting Daegu Samsung Lions Park, home of the Samsung Lions of the KBO.
Buy it HERE
Sketching
Andy may not always have his paints, brushes, and canvas with him, but he’s always got his sketchbook so he can capture the people and places he comes across at a moment’s notice.
Jamsil Stadium
Andy’s painting of Jamsil Stadium, the home of the LG Twins and the Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization.
It is one of the many paintings Andy has done of the home ballparks from teams in the KBO.
Koshien Stadium
Andy’s painting of Koshien Stadium near Kobe, in Japan. It is the home of the Hanshin Tigers of the Nippon Professional Baseball league (NPB), which is the highest level of baseball in Japan.
It is one of the many paintings Andy has done of the home ballparks from teams in the NPB.
Buy it HERE
The Scoreboard at Koshien
Koshien Stadium was built to host Japan’s national high school baseball tournaments. It opened in August of 1924 with a capacity of 55,000 seats, making it the largest stadium in Asia at the time.
When Babe Ruth brought the “All Americans” on a 12 city barnstorming tour of Japan in late 1934, the team played at Koshien.
Jimmie Foxx and his wife filmed much of that tour. Moe Berg filmed some of it, too.
Buy Andy’s painting HERE
Korean fans cheering at KBO games
Japanese fans cheering at NPB games
Presidents Race at Nationals Park
The Presidents Race has happened in the middle of the fourth inning of every Nationals home game since 2006.
Dog Day at Comiskey Park
Twice a year, White Sox fans get to walk their dogs around the warning track at Comiskey Park and sit with them in the outfield in designated sections with all of the other dogs.
2017 World Baseball Classic
The Gocheok Sky Dome is the home ballpark of KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes, but in 2017 it hosted games during the World Baseball Classic.
Andy has painted Gocheok many times, but you can buy this specific piece HERE
Tokyo Dome
While living in Korea, Andy often visited Japan to draw and paint its baseball culture. This piece is from his first visit to the home ballpark of NPB’s Yomiuri Giants in 2015.
Buy it HERE
Stretching His Canvases
An important step in the painting process is stretching your canvas before starting.
Most all oil and acrylic paints are somewhat rigid when dry. So, you could paint on un-stretched canvas, but the paint would most likely crack or flake off when the canvas folds, waves, or buckles.
Stretching your canvas gives it dimensional stability.
Paints
Not all of Andy’s works are paintings, but when they are, he prefers to use oil.
Getting Dirty
When you work with the materials and speed with which Andy does, you’re inevitably going to create a mess. You could either ruin your clothes every time, or invest in a smock/apron to mitigate your dry cleaning bills.
The Marquee at Wrigley Field
Want to hear more about the iconic features found at Wrigley Field? Listen to the My Baseball History episode with Brian Bernardoni, the official historian of Wrigley Field.
Minimalist Style
Another one of Andy’s Wrigley pieces. So simple, yet still unmistakably Wrigley.
The Stadiums Are Not The Journey
It can be hard to spend time alone with your thoughts on a long road trip. And I think this definitely qualifies as a long road trip.
The Essence of America
Baseball Brings People Together
Like it has for Andy and his friend, Joey Mellows, who have been traveling the world going to baseball games together for years.
Listen to the My Baseball History episode with Joey, who you may know as @BaseballBrit on twitter, HERE
Andy At The Bat
Andy spoke of the cultural heritage and legacy of the movie Field of Dreams, which he got to experience firsthand in Dyersville.
Busan, South Korea
Sajik Stadium, which is know as a mecca of Korean baseball, is home of the Lotte Giants of the KBO.
Andy has painted it many times, but you can buy this painting HERE
Baseball Has A Simplicity To It
But yet, it is still so complex. Take this piece Andy created in St. Louis. Just a few simple lines. No colors. No logos. No players. And yet any baseball fan could tell you exactly what it is depicting. It’s a great metaphor for the game, itself.
There Are No Bad Seats…
… just different perspectives. Which is a very health attitude to have in baseball, and in life.
Andy put that philosophy to good use in Kansas City on August 13, 2019 when he made this painting, which you can buy HERE
New York Mets
The 2018 Mets led the league in potential. They finished the season 4th in their division.
Young Andy
Andy graduated from Loughborough University in Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England with a degree in Painting in 2002.
The Mansard Roof
This painting by Edward Hopper was completed in 1923.
Lincoln For The Defense
This painting by Norman Rockwell was completed in 1961 for a Saturday Evening Post story of almost the same title by Elisa Bialk.
This video, originally tweeted by F.P. Santangelo, Jr., shows Andy painting at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
Buy the painting Andy was working on HERE
Painting panoramic views of the stadiums allows Andy to play with perspective, while getting everything on the canvas he’s trying to portray. Take this example of CC Sabathia’s sendoff from Yankee Stadium. You can buy Andy’s original painting HERE
Capturing Energy
Sticking with the CC Sabathia theme, Andy’s broad brush strokes give the illusion of movement in many of his pieces. Couple that with the multiple overlaid images, and this piece really does a great job of capturing energy.
Tintype
A tintype is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel and used as the support for the photographic emulsion.
Andy’s Tintype
This image of Jamsil Stadium was made using the Collodion Wet Plate process, invented in 1851. Andy developed it in a cardboard box on the passenger seat of his car in 2017.
Pinhole Camera
A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture (the so-called pinhole) – effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect.
Andy has been using them for years.
Andy’s Image
This photo of Jamsil Stadium was made using a box for holding bacteria for the intestine. The exposure time was 90 minutes. Notice how the movements of the players are captured!
Gaming at the Game
From August 19th to August 21st, 2019, X Rocker and E-Squared partnered up with the Minnesota Twins to bring fans at Target Field the first ever gaming lounge inside of a baseball stadium.
The Scoreboard at Wrigley
Andy painted Wrigley on August 22, 2019. He was enamored with the iconic scoreboard in center field, and made it a focal point of his piece.
Buy the painting HERE
The Ivy
Another iconic part of the Wrigley aesthetic is the ivy, which was installed in 1937.
The Steamboat in Cincinnati
When Andy visited the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, the giant steamboat in center field caught his eye, and made it onto his canvas.
Buy it HERE
Minnie & Paul
The old school Minnesota Twins logo of two fellas shaking hands across a river was created in 1961 by St. Paul illustrator Ray Barton, who was paid $15 to create the design.
Now, it’s a 46-foot high neon sign in Target Field that lights up whenever a Twins player hits a home run. Which, in 2019, happened a lot.
The Ballpark in Arlington
The Rangers chose to build a retro-style ballpark which incorporated many features of baseball's Jewel Box parks, including a roofed home run porch in right field, reminiscent of Tiger Stadium.
Buy Andy’s work HERE
The Train in Houston
When Andy visited Houston on August 3, 2019, he thought he was going to see the train 90 feet above the field that was installed in 2000. He did, but he also saw the Astros throw a combined no-hitter against Seattle.
Buy this piece HERE
Ichiro’s Last Game
Ichiro played the final MLB game of his career at the Tokyo Dome on March 21, 2019 as the Mariners faced the A’s in Japan.
Buy Andy’s painting of Ichiro HERE
Lou Gehrig
No one thought his consecutive games streak would ever be broken. Then Cal Ripken, Jr. came along.
Buy Andy’s painting of Gehrig HERE
“Hand of God”
Diego Maradona’s controversial goal in the 1986 World Cup Quarterfinal in Mexico gave Argentina a 2-1 win over England.
God Save The Queen
Andy created a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II out of 1,000 used and unused tea bags which gained him international publicity, including a Trivial Pursuit question about his piece.
A Mini Art Exhibition
When Andy stayed at my house, he was able to lay out all of the paintings he had with him at that point, and look at them all together for the first time. It was really cool to be there with him while he experienced that.
In My Living Room
Andy was the first guest of the podcast to record their interview in my house with me. For every interview before that, I traveled to the subject. It was a neat change of pace.
If You Build It…
Andy at the Field of Dreams
…He Will Come And Paint It
Andy set up in a couple different spots at the Field of Dreams to get multiple perspectives and vantage points. This one allowed him to capture the field and the home.
Field of Dreams (Home)
Painted late in the evening of August 21, 2019.
Buy it HERE
Ghost Players
Artwork inspired by Andy’s trip to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.
Buy it HERE
Do You Want To Play Catch? II
Artwork inspired by Andy’s trip to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.
Buy it HERE
Andy In Cooperstown
Shoeless Joe may not have made it there, but Andy did. Here he is displaying his work during an exhibition at the end of his trip.
Keith Arnatt
Not just an artist. A real artist.
Me and Andy at Joe’s in Dyersville
We were both exhausted, but we still enjoyed our time (and our food) at the appropriately-named Joe’s 2nd Street Diner in Dyersville.
Meeting at Yak-Zies
Andy, Me, and Joey Mellows meeting for a drink at Yak-Zies in Wrigleyville. I was bartending, they were being tended to.
Joey and Andy
Just a couple of chaps, dressed up like ballplayers from the early 1900s, in the middle of the night, in some stranger’s living room, 4,000 miles from home. And they couldn’t possibly be happier about it. Baseball really is magic.
The header on the @shoelesspodcast twitter profile is Andy’s painting of me interviewing Joey Mellows for his episode of My Baseball History.
Doubleday Field
Named for Abner Doubleday and located two blocks from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu Phinney’s farm.
Andy was there in October of 2019. You can buy his painting of the field HERE
Baseball in the Garden of Eden
Major League Baseball Official Historian John Thorn’s 2011 book draws on original research to tell how the game evolved from other bat-and-ball games and gradually supplanted them, how the New York game came to dominate other variants, and how gambling and secret professionalism promoted and plagued the game.
Buy it HERE
Some other websites I accessed while doing research for this interview with Andy Brown:
https://uni-watch.com/2018/09/29/painting-baseball-one-ballpark-at-a-time/