Froelick Gallery is pleased to present recent large scale paintings by Benny Fountain. Fountain was born in Moscow, ID in the middle of The Palouse, and is based in Spokane, WA where he teaches painting at Whitworth University. Fountain's recent paintings address his fascination with the structure of painted compositions and the elemental forms of his regional landscape.
EVENTS WITH THE ARTIST:
First Thursday Reception, August 7, 5-8pm.
Exhibition Talk, Saturday, August 9, 11am.
Consolation: Paintings from The Hill
I grew up in the Palouse region of Idaho and have always known and loved its special charisma. I’ve also lived away for many years, including ten years in Texas, but each summer I’d return to paint in the Palouse hills.
On one such summer return, a local farmer with an expansive spirit gave me the go ahead to build a studio-shack at a high point on his land.
After the summer, back in Texas, I dashed off a pencil sketch of the structure I had in mind and mailed it to my father. A couple of months passed and he told me he’d built it and perched it on a foundation of boulders he’d cobbled together from the hillside.
By some kind of gravitational pull I’ve now found myself back in the Palouse full-time. In my first winter back, I limited myself to the language of line to find the structure and space of the land. Spring came and my lines became green against a stark-white ground. The summer sun revealed a contrasting drama of light and shadow. After this, each season brought chromatic displays that pressed my attention to the full orchestration of color.
Benny Fountain June 2025
