Martin Brouillette Canadian, b. 1971
What the Pencil Knew First, 2025
pencil, acrylic and oil on canvas
60 x 48 in
152.4 x 121.9 cm
152.4 x 121.9 cm
This title points to the beginning of the painting — when I’m not trying to define anything yet, just feeling my way in. The pencil carries that first impulse. It’s...
This title points to the beginning of the painting — when I’m not
trying to define anything yet, just feeling my way in. The pencil
carries that first impulse. It’s sensitive, uncertain, often fleeting —
but it holds a kind of truth that stays with the work, even as color
and gesture build on top of it.
Even when those early lines become barely visible, I know they’re
there. They hold the emotional architecture of the painting.
trying to define anything yet, just feeling my way in. The pencil
carries that first impulse. It’s sensitive, uncertain, often fleeting —
but it holds a kind of truth that stays with the work, even as color
and gesture build on top of it.
Even when those early lines become barely visible, I know they’re
there. They hold the emotional architecture of the painting.