About Me

Hi, My name is Brendan Grant, I live in Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand, and have lived here for almost all of my life.

I've been drawing all my life, and painting since about 2001. Lots of people are surprised by the volume of work I've done, I just really enjoy working on it. I try to paint cheerful works with lots of colour, movement and energy.

I like to work on a wide variety of artworks, but I specialize in Urban landscapes of Wellington City scenes, and mainly work on acrylic on canvas.

I've developed a style of painting that I think fits Wellington City well, and I'm still developing, changing and evolving as I go along.

I've travelled a bit and found Wellington City has a unique kind of buzz to it, all the urban sculptures, and the energy to it. It's a great city for painting, and I find you can never run out of places to make good painting scenes from. Some people have asked me why I don't have any Lower Hutt scenes, but I just find Wellington feels like a more interesting city for making painting scenes from.

I scan my paintings on my computer and join them together and make them into prints. I started selling these on TradeMe at the start of 2009 as a 'spend $20 and see what I can profit' experiment and since then I have kept up selling prints on TradeMe and also at various market stalls around the Wellington region including the Fringe bar Market at the Fringe bar in Wellington, Mighty Mighty Markets, at the Mighty Mighty bar, Art Thorn markets, upstairs Thistle Hall, Get Crafty on Logan in Upper Hutt, the Cuba St Night Market (not going anymore) and the Island Bay Fair, and I have tried a few others, as well. Markets are good fun, and it gives me lots of feedback and direction for my artwork. I also exhibit artwork at cafes and put my prints up for sale alongside the originals. I exhibit at Atrium Gallery, the NZ Art Show every year, and The Southern Cross bar every year. Also I always have a few pieces at Scorchorama Cafe on Scorching Bay.

As well, Occasionally, I am commissioned to do original paintings of scenes of choice.

I am quite busy with preparing prints, cutting the cardboard, and doing markets, as well as other commitments, and usually work on originals in my own time and take around a month to a month and a half to complete them.

I am mainly influenced by Impressionists and Surrealists art. Some of my main influences in my painting style are Vincent Van Gogh, and Edward Hopper, I like to look at lots of different art though.

I like to make paintings that feel lively and fun. I always try and put my own personal touch into the painting style, but also find that when I'm not trying to stick within a personal style, it always seems to come through.

I paint mainly from various photographs, and if I've got the time, sometimes I like to sit on the scene and do some pencil drawing, to base the painting from, and get more of a feel for the scene, but often just go from many photographs.

My urban landscape paintings have familiarity to them, so appeal to a wide variety of people. My works in my "Other Works" galleries appeal more to younger people though.

Outside of art, I like watching sports, playing basketball, listening to music, travelling and web design.