Frank Brennan
Irish Artist in London
My work explores what lies beneath the surface—where memory, identity and imagination meet.
Origins & Early Work
I’m an Irish artist based in London, where I’ve lived for nearly half a century. My first creative home was the theatre, where I worked as a director, actor, designer and maker.
For many years, I told stories through performance, character and space. Painting came later, when I gave myself a new creative challenge: could I bring a character to life in two dimensions rather than three? I decided to find out by painting a photorealistic portrait.
The result was Petr, a portrait I’m still proud of. At the time, I had no idea where it would lead, but it proved to be a turning point in my life.
Frank Brennan
Irish Artist in London
My work explores what lies beneath the surface—where memory, identity and imagination meet.
Origins & Early Work
I’m an Irish artist based in London, where I’ve lived for nearly half a century. My first creative home was the theatre, where I worked as a director, actor, designer and maker.
For many years, I told stories through performance, character and space. Painting came later, when I gave myself a new creative challenge: could I bring a character to life in two dimensions rather than three? I decided to find out by painting a photorealistic portrait.
The result was Petr, a portrait I’m still proud of. At the time, I had no idea where it would lead, but it proved to be a turning point in my life.
Working with Place and Material
Travel is one of the strongest influences on my work. The people I’ve met stay with me, as do the places I’ve travelled through—the west of Ireland, the mountains of Spain and Mexico, the snows of the north and the stillness of the Sahara.
Sometimes the place itself becomes part of the work. Tethys: When the Sahara Was Sea, for example, contains sand I brought back from the Sahara.
I’d love to take that further—to live and work in remote places for a time and see how that would affect what I produce. That could mean working earth into the surfaces, grinding stone into pigment and discovering what might come out of it.
Responding to the World
At the same time, I find it impossible to ignore what is happening in the world. Populism and authoritarianism are on the rise—the lessons of history forgotten.
Rather than give in to the despair this sometimes provokes in me, I began work on Responding to the Darkness Descending, a series of paintings that use intense colour and light to counterbalance that darkness.
Framing the Work
I don’t decide in advance whether a painting will be framed. Some feel complete as they are, while others seem to demand one. When that happens, I make the frame myself because it becomes an integral part of the work.
For But the blink…, I charred the wood with flame, connecting the carbon in the frame to the cave imagery and the origins of life. For Tethys: When the Sahara Was Sea, I carved the pine into the shifting forms of the dunes and worked the same Sahara sand I had used in the painting into its surface.
What Comes Next
Ultimately, I dream of bringing everything together: painting, making, travel and my years in theatre. Perhaps that will lead to an exhibition conceived as a complete experience—not simply a collection of works on walls, but something that unfolds as people move through it.
