Robert Brun, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, has nourished an interest in art since the first grade. Throughout his school career he won numerous awards for his works.

In the 1970’s Brun attended the Rhode Island School of Design and earned a bachelor’s degree as an illustrator. After several years as a part-time freelance illustrator and an employee of an advertising agency, he founded the Independent Pencil Company in 1986, the year following his move to Newburyport, Massachusetts. Over the next 15 years he honed his artistic skills as a professional illustrator, until in 1998, after 18 years of commercial work, he made the successful transition to fine art. Since then he has been studying and nurturing his artistic skill. He continues to paint scenes depicting flight and the New England coast. His paintings can be seen at the Plum Island Aerodrome, the Walsingham Gallery, and in private collections of pilots, sailors and art enthusiasts throughout the country.

As a practicing professional artist for over twenty years, Mr. Brun uses watercolor and oil to capture the uniqueness of the New England landscape. During the summer months he combines art with his other passion—sailing—and aboard his twenty five foot sailboat, he cruises coastal waters creating many paintings of the New England coast and harbors.

Mr. Brun has shown his work in galleries in Boston, Atlanta, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California, and Massachusetts. His clients include Hewlett Packard, WGBH/Nova, and the New England Aquarium. He has also taught painting and has clients who have commissioned landscapes and portraits.

Robert’s interest in aviation began at a very early age. During the first 18 years of his life he built scale and flying models of just about “anything with a propeller”, but his primary interest is aircraft of the 1930s and 40s.

In 2009 and 2011 two paintings, "Hurricane Scramble" and "Flight of the Tomahawk" were awarded Awards of Merit and the CEA Simufite juried show in Dallas, TX.

In 2011 the painting "First Solo" of World War II PB2Y pilot Lt. JG Thomas Wiley's first solo flight into an unexpected snow squall, was awarded Second Place at the juried show at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, VA.