Benny Fountain: Landscapes: Palouse and Provence

Froelick Gallery is honored to host a solo exhibition of new paintings by Benny Fountain “Landscapes: Palouse and Provence,” on view September 1 through October 8, 2022.  The gallery will celebrate the exhibition opening with a public reception during the Pearl District Neighborhood’s First Thursday neighborhood gallery walk on Thursday, September 1^st from 5 to 8pm. 

Fountain’s new paintings focus on his homeland of the Palouse Hills, a geographically dramatic farming region that spans from Western Idaho through Central Washington into Northeastern Oregon. Deep family connections to the Palouse light, land and agriculture give Fountain a great sense of commitment to his poetic, painted interpretation of the area.  The exhibition also includes a series of paintings investigating the Provence region in France. His relatively recent connection to Provence is fueled by his admiration of 19^th century painter Paul Cézanne. Cézanne left his Provence homeland for Paris but was quickly drawn back to the countryside to continue his profound study of the land and light.  Fountain states: “In the last two years I have roamed the hills of the Palouse and the rugged terrain of Provence, looking for, I suppose, the same things that my grandma in Idaho and Cézanne in Provence saw:  a sun-filled sky and the alive earth. “

Fountain was born and raised in Moscow, Idaho, in 2005 received his BFA at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR and in 2008 his MFA at the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA.  Fountain is a Professor of Art at Baylor University, Waco, TX.  In Spring 2022 Fountain was included in the 196^th Annual Juried Exhibition at The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, and in 2017 Fountain was awarded a Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation Artist Residency, Bethany, CT.  This is Fountain’s 7^th solo exhibition at Froelick Gallery.