Alan Brooks didn’t start out as an artist. In fact, he used to make his living in an airplane cockpit.
After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Brooks became a flight instructor and then a pilot for a charter airline, in addition to flying an air ambulance. In 2000, a fast-food franchise owner hired Brooks to pilot his private jet, and then struck a deal with another business executive to share the plane. Brooks flew the men to business meetings and ferried their families to vacation sites. “Holidays didn’t exist for me,” says Brooks, 52, who lives in Andover, KS.
In 2008, the Great Recession hit, and the executives sold their jet to cut costs. Brooks was grounded. “No airplane, no need for a pilot,” he says. Openings for corporate pilots were scarce, so Brooks filled his days painting and drawing—talents he discovered as a child. Growing up in Wichita, KS—often called the “Air Capital of the World” for the prevalence of its aviation manufacturing—Brooks found that airplanes were among his favorite subjects for the canvas or sketch pad.
Brooks also spent time volunteering as a teacher’s aide at the elementary school that his daughter, Josie, attended. One day, a colleague who knew he was an artist asked him to create a painting of a fighter jet for her husband, who flew those planes in the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force. That commission led, by word of mouth, to many more. Today, Brooks’ paintings can be found in homes across the United States and around the world.
At about the same time, Brooks began getting hired to paint murals at schools and churches, and parents would pay him to create playful images on the walls of their children’s bedrooms. One day in 2010, someone asked if he could teach a wine-and-art class. “I didn’t know what that was,” he confesses. Still, he agreed to lead the session, in which attendees sip chardonnay and pinot noir while they paint under the tutelage of an artist. Soon, Brooks—along with his wife, Tanya—was being invited into homes around Wichita to run painting parties. They also started teaching art classes to children as part of a church summer program.
As the nation’s economy improved, so did the prospects for pilots looking for work. But with the commissions, painting parties and kids’ classes keeping him busy, Brooks had another idea. “I started to think, ‘Shoot, maybe I can do this instead of going back to flying,’” he says. He decided to retire as a corporate pilot and pursue a new career in the art world.
Today, Brooks and his wife continue to run painting parties and classes in homes and other locations. They’ve also opened their own studio, called Art Towne, in Mulvane, KS. “Neither one of us has a business background, so we’re learning things every day,” says Brooks—like how to keep an inventory of supplies or better understand tax laws. They initially paid rent and other expenses from personal savings, but recently set up a savings and checking account for the business. With an eye toward the future, they contribute to 401(k) plans, which Alan has from his days as a pilot and Tanya from her full-time job as a physician assistant.
While there have been ups and downs along the way, Brooks says that business has been improving since launching Art Towne, where he teaches fine art classes for up to 21 people with help from another artist. But their bread and butter is still the children’s birthday and wine-and-art painting parties, where Brooks has led as many as 174 participants at off-site venues.
Brooks also taught a painting class at a large fundraiser for the Tyler Robinson Foundation, established by the rock band Imagine Dragons, which supports families of children with cancer. And, a few days a week, he leads after-school art programs. “I really enjoy working with children—teaching them about art and seeing the joy on their faces when they complete a painting,” he says. “That makes me really happy.”
Timothy Gower is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in more than two dozen major magazines and newspapers, including Prevention, Reader’s Digest, Esquire, Men’s Health and The New York Times.
Inset photo courtesy of Alan Brooks.
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