David Brown (American artist)

David Brown is an American contemporary artist, known for his landscapes and portraiture of his local community of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. He lives and works in what has become known as the "Hay House". It is the oldest such structure east of the Mississippi River.

Brown had a solo exhibition in November 2004 at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The exhibition featured a series of weekly landscapes of dusk and dawn from his home, a amassing of portraits of people from the local community, and importantly, a set of four vibrancy size interiors of his home, the Hay House.

Brown's house is a one room cement home insulated subsequently hay, called a 'hay house', with no electricity or doling out water. He has fields where he grows a variety of produce, to live on or to sell. “The notice of the Hay House is ‘this is on height of enough,” explains Brown. “I live augmented that 90% of the world’s population. My artwork is practically appreciating what we have.”

Brown lived in Nepal during the 1970s, and taught art and English. Later, he worked for UNICEF and the organization of India Department of Tourism as a photographer. Back in the United States, he worked as Operations Director for the Tibetan Cultural Center of Connecticut.

Brown was the subject of a documentary by Jeannie Newman, David Brown and the Hay House about his way of life.

On May 1, 2007, Brown's studio and much of his artwork was destroyed by fire. On November 4 and November 17, 2007, Brown held a public "barn raising" at his property during which the studio was re-built. The new structure is insulated subsequently bales of hay.