Farrell Brickhouse on colour, paint and painting

Farrell Brickhouse; colour, paint and painting

“Thanks for this opportunity Terry to share a bit about my art and process. 

First to answer  your “geeky” question, I do work in oils, mostly Williamsburg Paints and some Gamblin too. Oil paint is such a luscious medium offering me all I want to do with paint. I need the reductive nature of oils in my painting process, it allows me to think in paint and move in a non- linear fashion to where I want to be.

As far as my palette goes I try to purchase at least one new color every time I’m shopping, sometimes I will purchase a whole series of colors for one painting if I have a tempting idea. I use at least 3 different whites, even a pearlescent one, like silvers and golds to use as colors mixed with other hues. I’ve recently moved into a long sought magenta/ violets palette but my staples are warms to cools thru the spectrum aware which are opaque or translucent.

For my supports, I used to make every new structure mostly of found wood that would be reshaped, drawing with a jig- saw then canvas or linen the panels or just size the wood. It was this gestation period which allowed me to literally touch every square inch of surface before applying the first brush mark. The last few years I have been experimenting so feverishly that there was no way to build all the structures I was running thru. So I starting painting on all the left- over canvases students discarded at the end of the semester where I teach. I sand them down and reclaim them. I do still enjoy going down into the shop and building something without a 90 degree corner and a non store- bought dimension. 

As far as the actual painting aspect , I understand for myself there is a process to working, of starting somewhere and then building on that, like a counter- puncher, putting up something and then moving it from there, trusting that I know what I want or don’t as I see it before me. At some point this may bring me to that other deeper creative state where I’m painting and surprising myself and the work unfolds beyond what I had envisioned. Sometimes it comes easily and other times it is quite scary. At the end of the day it takes time, sometimes weeks or longer, for the novelty and the heat of the battle to wear off and to be able to see what was truly accomplished or not. But it is so exciting to take what one thought was an ending and turn it into a new beginning.” ~ Farrell Brickhouse

Farrell’s work could be seen recently in Outside/In at Life on Mars Gallery

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