Spotlight Gallery Focus on Roy Brash, Canadian Contemporary Visual Artist Extraordinaire

By: Albert Lightstone

Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with Roy Brash whose paintings are currently on display in the Janigan studio as part of our Spotlight Gallery. He has even created a special work entitled Twelve Angry Jurors to commemorate our current production.

Originally from Pembroke Ontario, Roy moved to Ottawa and settled in the Glebe where he has set up a studio in his home. What started off as a passion, became a career as he sold his business and transitioned to becoming a full-time artist.

He is proud to have taken courses in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts which is the oldest establishment of that type of learning in the U.S. Of the numerous classes he took, one that he enjoyed the most was taught by Stuart Shils, a contemporary American landscape painter. He was also influenced by Eric Fischl, another American artist renowned around the world and whose works sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Roy enjoys working in his home studio which not only occupies one of the largest lots in the Glebe, surrounded by beautiful gardens, but is soothed by the pleasant music of his upstairs neighbour who teaches voice opera.

His preferred medium is acrylics. According to Roy, oil paint takes too long too dry, and he is a quick painter, too impatient to wait for a prolonged drying process. Although oil is a more established product dating back hundreds of years and retains colors better, acrylic lets him revisit his work and make changes to something that is never finished until the last possible moment. It actually takes up to 6 months for an oil painting to fully dry!

In terms of colors, his preference are blues and grays. He mixes his colors right on the canvas which not only avoids diluting the paint but gives it a better blend. Only recently he has begun adding brighter colors such as yellows and greens. His canvas starts off white and is then completely covered with a combination of 2 grays and blue as a base and then the details are added.

He paints from memory with images stuck in his mind. It may be something in the past or a scene that reminds him of a place that he has been. He in fact does not plan his painting 100%, but starts the process and allows the paint at one point to take over.

Part of the process may include using reference photos stored on his computer that serve to inspire him. He feels that his work should tell a story and has a sense of motion. He loves painting scenes with water. In fact, 90% of his paintings have water portrayed, never calm but with lots of waves providing that needed movement.