Connie
Brown works together
with Julie Ruff under
the name of Redstone
Studios. These two
talented artists are map
painters. Using toned
washes of acrylic and
pencil on canvas, they
paint maps - most
commonly commemorative
maps on commission for
private clients. They've
mapped trek routes, road
trips, life histories,
private retreats, places
of origin, gardens,
honeymoons, cruises and
golf courses. They've
painted maps for
corporations, towns,
inns, and publishing
companies: two of their
bookcovers were
published by Bantam and
Workman Press.
Maps, until recently,
represented a marriage
of art and science. It
is this marriaget that
interests the artists of
Redstone Studios, and
one that they endeavor
to perpetuate. Say the
artists, "Our maps are
accurate, but they are
also (we hope)
beautiful."
Some of Redstone
Studio's canvases
exhibit the elaborate
elements found in
Renaissance maps, such
as borders, cartouches,
lettering and
illustrations. Others
resemble eighteenth
century American maps,
simpler and paler than
their European
counterparts; others are
creative hybrids. They
also paint maps in a
more contemporary style;
slightly abstracted and
painterly, rather than
highly ornamented.
