White Lily

Red Tulips

Apache man

Blue James Dean

Two cats on a blanket

Arthur Brooks, bio.

            I am originally from the small town of Elizabethton, Tennessee.  My father’s family lived in Virginia after 1635 and then moved to Tennessee in 1811. One of my hobbies is genealogy and family trees, so I have researched all this.  I am self-taught artist and did not start painting until I was 30. In the beginning, I drew ante-bellum mansions in Waynesboro, Georgia. One day, my sister said, “Draw me!” I drew her as a 1920s flapper. That was when I realized that I could draw people.  

            My father was an Air Force officer, so I grew up in a variety of places as we moved frequently. Perhaps my favorite spot was in rural England, where my family lived for several years.  Later, I joined the Air Force and served in North Carolina, South Korea, and Wyoming.  Over the years, I lived in North and South Carolina and Virginia and have had a wide variety of jobs: butcher, ballroom dance instructor, window dresser, gardener for WWII widows, baker, appraiser of stamps and coins, butler for Miss Tennessee 1969, Air Force cook for missile sites, chef for the historic Plains Hotel in Cheyenne, and so on. I moved to Bisbee in 2018.

            My other hobbies are jazz from the 1920s, art, restoring historic homes, and gourmet cooking. I now have the time to devote to my artwork. Originally, I focused on silent movie stars because they had such wonderful faces! I still enjoy faces, but I paint other subjects as well, such as animals and still-lifes. I would describe myself as a Modern Expressionist, influenced by the art between the World Wars (1919-1939).  Painters Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe are my idols. I am hoping to develop my art further here in Bisbee and expand to different horizons.