Benny Fountain
Hermit's Wealth, 2024
Oil on canvas
canvas: 84 x 70 in
framed: 86 x 71.5 in
framed: 86 x 71.5 in
FOU160
Copyright The Artist
$ 6,800.00
Framed by the artist with light natural wood moulding. Charles Froelick's notes from Fountain's August 9, 2025 exhibit talk: 24 years ago when he first moved from rural Moscow to...
Framed by the artist with light natural wood moulding.
Charles Froelick's notes from Fountain's August 9, 2025 exhibit talk: 24 years ago when he first moved from rural Moscow to Portland for school, Portland was chaotic and loud and often disconcerting to his quiet demeanor, and he focussed on making small, realist paintings. He said that “realism” helped ground him during the disruption. Now that he lives back in the Palouse, being in a more calm phase of his life, and thus he's feeling more adventurous and able to experiment with abstraction. Also back decades ago he used the language of color and solid shapes to further present “stability,” and being grounded; now he is using the “language of line” to activate the paintings with dynamism and circulation.
The other large paintings in this show are monochrome- black and white, or shades of green. Benny talked about making a song out a few simple notes, or chords and being able to make beautiful music out of just a few notes. Music, like paintings do not need to be complex or complicated to be beautiful. In “Hermit’s Wealth” he allowed 4 “notes” or 4 very powerful colors that he did not want to complicate by mixing into myriad variations: He used Naples yellow, Ultramarine blue, Chromium Oxide green and added earth with Burnt Sienna.
“Hermit’s Wealth” was also painted when there were not strong shadows, and the light was very even across the rolling hills. His grandfather was a crop duster and taught flight lessons- Benny flew with him often, so Benny is very familiar with areal views of the region and the many daily and seasonal light changes. This painting was however very much painted from perspectives “on the ground.” Benny moved the canvas to several spots on The Hill while painting different zones of the painting from different perspectives.
Charles Froelick's notes from Fountain's August 9, 2025 exhibit talk: 24 years ago when he first moved from rural Moscow to Portland for school, Portland was chaotic and loud and often disconcerting to his quiet demeanor, and he focussed on making small, realist paintings. He said that “realism” helped ground him during the disruption. Now that he lives back in the Palouse, being in a more calm phase of his life, and thus he's feeling more adventurous and able to experiment with abstraction. Also back decades ago he used the language of color and solid shapes to further present “stability,” and being grounded; now he is using the “language of line” to activate the paintings with dynamism and circulation.
The other large paintings in this show are monochrome- black and white, or shades of green. Benny talked about making a song out a few simple notes, or chords and being able to make beautiful music out of just a few notes. Music, like paintings do not need to be complex or complicated to be beautiful. In “Hermit’s Wealth” he allowed 4 “notes” or 4 very powerful colors that he did not want to complicate by mixing into myriad variations: He used Naples yellow, Ultramarine blue, Chromium Oxide green and added earth with Burnt Sienna.
“Hermit’s Wealth” was also painted when there were not strong shadows, and the light was very even across the rolling hills. His grandfather was a crop duster and taught flight lessons- Benny flew with him often, so Benny is very familiar with areal views of the region and the many daily and seasonal light changes. This painting was however very much painted from perspectives “on the ground.” Benny moved the canvas to several spots on The Hill while painting different zones of the painting from different perspectives.