The Laughing Stock of the Heartless Stars: The Brown Collection, Marylebone, London

This painting is based on a small black and white etching by John Martin (1789-1854). The collection of figures that are the subject of the original have been removed in order to make the scene other-worldly and without a specific scale. The work is about texture and movement, solidity and translucency, disorientation and spectacle. First, the painting was executed entirely in brown paint, then the stronger, brighter colours were glazed over this ground, not unlike a hand-tinted black-and-white photograph. I wanted the reds to recede into the distance, and the blues and greens come to the forward - quite opposite of a traditional landscape painting.
- Glenn Brown, May 2018