For many, retirement is a time to reap the benefits of decades of hard work by spending time doing things you love. Local artists Bill and Marilyn Brown of Springville have been doing just that by creating award-winning paintings in their art gallery on Main Street and selling prints around the country.
Both Bill and Marilyn Brown have been immersed in the creative arts in Springville for decades, but the visual arts came later in life – particularly for Bill. For quite some time, the couple owned and operated two community theatres.
“My wife and I both have a love for theater, so we founded two community theaters in the mid-90s here in Springville, the Villa Playhouse and the Little Brown Theatre,” Bill said. “I was also enrolled at BYU in my late 50s to get a degree in theater and media arts.”
Mid curtain calls, Marilyn was writing and selling novels in the Latter-day Saint and Western-themed historical fiction.
“When I was younger, I read a George Eliot novel,” Marilyn recalled. “She was a brilliant British writer who wrote this story that was just so touching to me. I thought to myself, ’Where are the novels about the people I know in this area who were pioneers who worked so hard to develop this wonderful place that we live in?’ I just wanted to write those novels.”
For nearly a decade, the Browns were fully immersed in their respective careers while also managing to put on close to 100 productions. The curtain closed, however, for the Browns when Bill suffered a heart attack in 2005.
“The heart attack made it so I couldn’t handle the stress (of the theatres) and it took me about five years to overcome the effects of that heart attack,” Bill said. “It was during that recovery period when Marylin, who has had painting as a hobby for years, said, ‘Why don’t we take an art class together?’ So we took an art class at the senior center each week in St. George where we had a winter home, and I enjoyed it.”
As their love for painting grew, so did their collection of paintings. Bill recalled filling their basement with paintings and needing to find a place to not only store, but showcase the pieces they had created. The two decided to move the paintings to their office space on Main Street in Springville that was also home to Bill’s real estate business. And as their collection of art grew, they decided they wanted to open up an art gallery to showcase their paintings as well art from other local artists.
The gallery remained open until a fire broke out while the two were away, gutting the buildings and destroying the paintings in them.
“Both these buildings’ interiors were destroyed, and we rebuilt and reopened again in April 2019,” Bill recalled. “We had six other artists in here with us. Of course, COVID hit in February 2020, so we sent our artists home with their work.”
When it came time to reopen, the couple decided that it was time to slow down and focus their time on each other, their family and of course, their love of painting.
“We have 17 grandkids and by the end of the year, we’ll have 25 great-grandchildren,” Bill said.“So it’s been a very productive life. When we were deciding to bring more artists into the gallery, Marilyn and I looked at each other and said, ‘You know, we’re in our mid-80s. We own the building. We don’t have to pay rent. Why don’t we just do our own thing? ’So that’s what we’ve been doing.”
For the past few years, the Browns have been painting and inviting visitors to view and even purchase much of their work at their gallery they named The House of Brown Arts. Many pieces have also been showcased in other galleries where they have won awards including the prestigious Staircase Gallery of Zions Bank.
“We do sell our work,” Bill said. “We’ve sold, over that period of time, probably 300 of our paintings to people as far away as Texas and Boston. We’re only open 12 to 15 hours a week now, rather than 40. We do oil paintings and primarily focus on landscapes.”
In Bill’s artist bio on his website, he also notes that he loves to “explore imaginative ideas, bright colors, and abstract dimensions in my space scapes,” including The colorful vistas in Utah and red rock country.
When asked to talk about his Art, Bill was quick to defer to Marilyn, saying “she is a much more accomplished artist than I am.” Both Bill and Marilyn have won a “Star” award for a lifetime achievement in the arts from the Scera Foundation.
As the Browns look back at what brought them to where they are today, they said that they feel gratitude to their family and the community that has supported them in each of their artistic endeavors.
“Painting is a nice thing for us to do at this stage of our life,” Marilyn said. “We’ve earned the right to retire. I tell people we’re retired but we’re actually just tired. This is a nice part of our life and we can sit back and enjoy the family, the memories, and still be able to have the energy to paint and to write a book in our mid-80s.”
The Brown House of Arts is located at 274 South Main St. in Springville and samples of art by both Bill and Marilyn can be found at brownandbrownpainting.com.
A couple articles previous articles that included the Browns:
Brown House Fire
‘Sweetwater: a Pioneer Novel Review
