Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1542145
In 2020, I arranged an artist residency for Brendan at the Earthskin Charitable Trust near Auckland, New Zealand, to culminate with an exhibition of the work created there at Jonathan Gooderham's Artis Gallery. Brendan spent around six weeks on the residency before having to return due to the Covid pandemic. The works remained in Auckland, and most have since sold. Brendan has gone on to have several exhibitions, including two at Rosenberg & Co. in New York, and in recent years immensely successful shows at Caldwell Snyder's Californian galleries, as well as a number of substantial commissions. The relationship between a dealer and an artist is a special one, requiring a strong, lasting bond built on professional clarity, personal trust, and a shared vision. The artist trusts the dealer to represent their work ethically and effectively; the dealer trusts the artist to be reliable, communicative, and consistent in their practice. My relationship with Brendan is all of this, but over the past decade it has also evolved into a close personal friendship, nurtured through constant communication, both professional and personal. Brendan's work has continued to evolve through travel to California, New Zealand, Iceland and most recently Ireland that I'm sure will yield a wealth of new paintings. But, his first love remains St Bride's Bay in his beloved Pembrokeshire. About three years ago, my friend Nigel Farrow, Brendan, and I, together with our wives, met for lunch in Cardiff and discussed the possibility of a new book on Brendan's work. Nigel agreed without hesitation. The result is The Space Between, with unanimous agreement that Ian Massey would write the text. After many meetings in person and online, Ian's text perfectly captures the artist's life, his ethos, his handling of paint, his imagery and more! Osborne Samuel are grateful to Nigel Farrow, to his team at Lund Humphries Publishing, particularly Sarah Thoroughgood, and to Ian Massey for his excellent text. Our thanks also to our friends Peter and Christina Dawson who have been great supporters of Brendan's work and have given him a base in California. "Burns mixes his metallics not only into the dilute washes with which he first floods the canvas, but into the colours of his oil and wax medium, a palette of various greys with admixtures of green, terre verte, rose madder and mauve, applied in striated impasto and impregnated with silver, gold, pewter and copper." – Ian Smedley