Art Business

Artist Layne Brady Painted + Gifted More Than 700 Portraits to Families of Fallen Soldiers

December 16, 2015 mariekazalia Leave a comment

Layne Brady

The skilled and versatile artist Layne Brady created bronze sculptures, landscape and bird paintings, and undertook an amazing portrait project. Tragically, Layne passed away suddenly last April from complications of a bronchial infection. Layne is sorely missed by friend, collaborator and collector Dean Cameron, who would like to pay tribute to Layne is an homage to the artist’s career. One project Dean Cameron and Layne had in the works was a collaboration on a children’s book which Layne was to illustration, but he passed away before he could complete the project. Dean Cameron maintains a posthumous artist profile and portfolio for Layne Brady on his Flootie online gallery site–view it here.

“I met Layne online through a barter network. I liked his work and so we put a deal together. Since that time I fell in love with his style and passion he had for his work. He was a very kind and gentle soul,” says Cameron.

Dean became his agent and placed his work in several galleries that sold his work, including Angel Gallery in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, and Pacific Flyway Gallery in Spokane Valley, Washington.

Dean Cameron misses his artist friend and spoke with admiration, particularly on the late artist’s portrait project, saying, “Layne was a very accomplished portrait artist. I own 7 original paintings of his. He painted over 700 portraits of fallen soldiers that were given to their families at no cost. His wife is in the process of creating prints of his remaining originals and developing a site to sell them.”

Here is a video, made in 2010, with Layne describing how he got involved making portraits for Project. In the video, the artist mentions painting and sending 500 portraits to families of fallen soldiers, but he continued painting for years after the video was made, and ultimately produced 700+ portraits. Anyone can fill out a request form for a portrait of a fallen hero to be painted by current project artists here.