Leslie Dean Brown has a science educational background, having obtained an honours degree in materials science at the University of Technology, Sydney. He completed a science PhD in 2005. He then moved to the Canary Islands soon afterwards and founded a successful bicycle rental business in Tenerife. In 2014 he returned to Australia and began a more creative career path; first a diploma in graphic design at Martin College in Sydney, and then an illustration diploma at the Interactive Design Institute (University of Hertfordshire). Besides art, Leslie is also interested in languages and cycling.
Leslie is an emerging Australian artist who creates several different styles of art in Moruya, NSW, Australia. Until recently these were primarily abstract cubist artworks created under the pseudonym van den hooven, in order to honor his half-Dutch ancestry. Intentionally cluttered, contradictory and complex—van den hooven’s compositions capture the chaos of the modern life, through deconstruction and rearrangement of the internal and external and the animate and inanimate.
Lately, Leslie has focused on a different subject matter and technique with the goal of bringing nature and biodiversity back into people’s homes and lifting people’s moods. These artworks are colour reduction lino prints featuring recognisable animals such as water birds, marine life (cephalopods, crustaceans and fish) and even some insects.
- Instagram: instagram.com/vandenhooven.com.au
- Art website: www.vandenhooven.com.au
- Main website: lesliedeanbrown.com
a selection of my work
Upcoming Exhibitions: “Endless Horizons: water & birdlife”
22 July – 09 August, 2027. Mechanics Institute, Moruya.
An exploration of the bold silhouettes and intricate textures found within the animal kingdom. By focusing on species with highly distinct anatomical forms—from the hard shell of a mud crab to the elasticity of an octopus’s tentacle or the shape-changing nature of a bird’s wing—this body of work seeks to capture the “essence” of these truly remarkable, wonderful and unmistakable creatures.An exploration of the bold silhouettes and intricate textures found within the animal kingdom. By focusing on species with highly distinct anatomical forms—from the hard shell of a mud crab to the elasticity of an octopus’s tentacle or the shape-changing nature of a bird’s wing—this body of work seeks to capture the “essence” of these truly remarkable, wonderful and unmistakable creatures.
The exhibition brings together a diverse taxonomic collection, unified by their striking visual identities: elegant water birds (egrets, herons, brolgas, spoonbills) and hardy sea birds (cormorant, gannet, pacific gull); marine life including various fish species, prawns, and crabs, squid, cuttlefish and octopus; and last but not least, insects such as praying mantis, beetles, wasps, and other instantly recognisable invertebrates species.
See my work at The Gallery, Mogo NSW
Address:
52 Sydney Street Mogo, NSW 2536, Australia
(02) 4474 2243
Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 10am – 4pm
Weekends: 10am – 4pm
Xmas Day: Closed