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David G. Brown

David G. Brown, artist and farmer, 70, of Old Saybrook, died peacefully in his home at the Hay House Farm in Old Saybrook on Jan. 19, 2024. David was born in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, March 27, 1953, to George and Mary (Wyda) Brown.

He graduated from Old Saybrook High School in 1971, second in his class. David started college at Middlebury, where he began to paint portraits and still lifes. He longed to see the world, though, and took a year off to travel overland across Asia. He visited India, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, where he saw the Buddhas of Bamiyam, and he trekked through Nepal. This journey would change his life. Upon returning, David attended Dartmouth College and graduated summa cum laude in 1976, having studied world geography and food problems. He later received a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University in 1989.

David returned to Nepal to teach at the Village School in Syrabu from 1976 to 1978. The residents were refugees from the Tibetan Village of Happiness. He was amazed by how genuinely happy the Tibetans were despite having so little. During his travels, David took photographs for UNICEF and Save the Children that were later published in a children’s book. When he returned to the U.S., he sought a similarly simple lifestyle, starting a farm in 1986 in Old Saybrook. He moved into a home built from hay bales covered in stucco, which was without plumbing or electricity. There, he created his own personal sanctuary, the Hay House Farm, where he melded art and farming into his everyday life. The message of the Hay House was, “This is more than enough.”

From 1987 to 1991, David taught social studies and art at the Hammonasset School in Madison. One year, he brought his students to Nepal for a month to work at the Tibetan refugee camp. The group brought with them duffel bags full of clothing for distribution. In October 1991, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was invited to Yale to receive an honorary degree. David was asked to drive the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Cabinet around New Haven. At the end of 1992, David helped resettle 20 Tibetan families in Old Saybrook. From 1992 to 1997, David worked as the Operations Director for the Tibetan Culture Center of CT. From 1993 to 1997, he served on the Old Saybrook Board of Education. David built the first Buddhist stupa in Connecticut at the Hay House Farm to serve as a place of meditation for the community. It was dedicated in 2007.

David was a talented painter. His work was displayed at the New Britain Museum of Art in 1999 and at the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport in 2000. In 2004, he was featured at an open house at the Florence Griswold Museum, where he created “The Installation,” a life-size still life of the inside of the Hay House with the outside painted in the four seasons. The Installation was accompanied by 365 paintings of sunrises from the past year and a big grid of portraits of his friends — his everyday heroes. He was the recipient of numerous best-in-show awards in Guilford, Essex, and at the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven. He displayed his work at several solo exhibitions throughout Connecticut.

“Farmer Brown” became a fixture of the Connecticut shoreline community and was well known for his jam, eggs, produce, honey, paintings, and Lhasa Apso-derived dogs (a breed originating in Tibet). He hosted an annual “daffodil brunch” every spring at The Hay House when tens of thousands of daffodils bloomed throughout the farm. He was a regular vendor at numerous farmers’ markets in the region, most recently in Chester. David was also the author and illustrator of the children’s book, “Getting Along Like Cats and Dogs: Kitty and Puppy at the Hay House.” He inspired countless residents of Connecticut and beyond to respect the earth, live simply, and do what you love.

David was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Marjorie Szerlip. He is survived by his sister, Audrey Brown, and her husband, Peter Cummin of Mystic, and his nephews, Aaron and David Szerlip, and their wives and children.

A Celebration of his Life will be in the spring when the daffodils are in bloom.