British artist set for Baseball Hall of Fame honor returns to North Fork
A renowned British sports painter returned this week to the North Fork as he prepares for a rare honor at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Andy Brown, who has painted more than 150 stadiums across the world, traveled with the Great Britain national team to Houston during the recently completed World Baseball Classic — capturing the games as they happened.
After the team was eliminated in group play, Mr. Brown stopped at the Jamesport Country Store to have one of his paintings framed, reconnecting with owner Howard Waldman, a friend of more than a decade.
“He’s a people person,” Mr. Waldman said.
Mr. Brown typically carries an easel with him when traveling and picks up art supplies from local shops as he goes. During his North Fork visit, he painted the Jamesport Country Store, the historic former Greenport Village Jail and the Greenport Long Island Rail Road station.
But he has earned worldwide acclaim documenting a wide range of sports with the stroke of a brush or pen. He has served as a team artist for the Great Britain National Baseball Program, in addition to painting cricket scenes for the Indian Premier League.
In 2019, he became the first artist to paint all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums live.
His storied artistic career has helped Mr. Brown connect with people around the world. The North Fork, however, takes the cake as his “favorite place in America,” he said, citing its community, scenery, history and landscapes.
“It feels like home from home,” said Mr. Brown, a native of Essex, England. “If I could be anywhere in America, it’s here.”
Part of what brings him back to the North Fork is his love for one particular pasta dish.
“I’ve gone all around the world and I want baked ziti — you can’t get it anywhere. But you can get it on the North Fork,” Mr. Brown said. “So every time I’m here, I’ve got to have baked ziti.”
He also found it on the menu during his recent stopover in New York City, where, aside from chowing down on the cheesy delight, he sketched iconic Manhattan locations including the Flatiron Building, Empire State Building, Washington Square Park and Union Square Park.
“It’s just kind of a visual map of my walking through New York City,” he said.
Despite Great Britain’s 8-2 loss to Mexico in its final group play game, Mr. Brown’s work from the World Baseball Classic caught the attention of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. He donated the painting during a visit March 21 and 22, though it typically takes at least three weeks for artifacts to be processed into the Hall of Fame. The painting was framed at Jamesport Art and Framing.
“His painting of Great Britain vs. Mexico on March 9 powerfully captures the globalization of the game,” said National Baseball Hall of Fame director of collections and archives RJ Lara. “At the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, our artwork collection traces the visual history of baseball from the 19th century to the present day, and Mr. Brown’s donation is a wonderful addition to that story.”
While in the Southwest, he also painted a spring training game between the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers in Phoenix.
“I’m painting as the game’s happening,” Mr. Brown explained. “So as the game starts, I’m painting the players, the landscape — you’ve got the Arizona kind of beautiful hills in the background here, the little mountains, all of the fans, I’ve got myself in there.”
He also managed to include a fellow Englishman named Nigel who chatted with him as he illustrated the game.
“You meet many people when you’re painting,” he said. “People come and talk to you and tell you their stories … I try and capture the culture of baseball, the culture of the sport, the culture of the place we are, the people I meet and the game itself.”
Mr. Brown keeps a record of his journeys underneath the brim of his Great Britain team hat, though the recent World Baseball Classic hadn’t yet made it to the cap when The Suffolk Times spoke with him March 18.
“That becomes part of the story I guess,” Mr. Brown said of the baseball cap.
His paintings have become their own kind of travel log — a reminder of where he’s been and the people he’s met.
“It’s very intuitive,” he said. “You just see something and you think, ‘That’s it.’ The light’s nice there or the feeling’s right and I get snapped into that.”
To learn more about Mr. Brown, visit andybrownstadiums.com.
