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I paint the spirit and soul of what I see.

Brian Froud

I had a job as an illustrator, and I wanted to change the direction of my work. I moved to the country, and immediately I started to paint fairies and trolls.
BRIAN FROUD

Country Jobs Troll
I went and studied graphic design, because it seemed to me that advertising is more honest – the image actually has a function. But once I started on that, I realized that was really boring.
BRIAN FROUD

Advertising Design Honest
It was hard for me to move forward, because I take responsibility for what I introduce into the world through my paintings. So to actually introduce something evil or bad was quite hard for me.
BRIAN FROUD

Evil Introduce Moving Responsibility Something
Spirits were seen to be very much part of the everyday world, and you were accosted by spirits all the time. It’s only really quite recently that we’ve relegated the fantastic as being just imagination and not real and having no purpose.
BRIAN FROUD

Day Every Fabtastic Imagination Real
Remember, as each man and woman is a microcosm reflecting the larger natural world, so healing of the self is also a healing for the world. As above, so below.
BRIAN FROUD

Healing Larger Men Natural Self
I always believed that the picture itself should tell the story.
BRIAN FROUD

Always Believe Should Stories
My art’s not safe, I don’t want it to be safe, it’s not meant to be safe, its controversial, it takes you into deep areas, it’s a journey, its starts off in safe areas but it gets into deep waters.
BRIAN FROUD

Art Controversial Deep Journey Water
Anytime that is ‘betwixt and between’ or transitional is the faeries’ favorite time. They inhabit transitional spaces: the bottom of the garden, existing in a space between manmade cultivation and wilderness.
BRIAN FROUD

Existing Fairies Garden Lakes Land
It seems to me that art has lost its connection to spirit.
BRIAN FROUD

Art Connections Spirit
I live in a house that’s incredibly old, and it’s typical that part of it is slightly in the ground. It’s very earthed. It’s almost like living in a hobbit house.
BRIAN FROUD

Hobbit House Incredibly Typical
Once you step onto the fairy path, it’s almost like there’s no way off. You have to keep going.
BRIAN FROUD

Path Steps Way
Art always used to involve spirit. Painters painted spirit. They painted by commission things to go into churches, and that was painting spirit. Or they would paint people of wealth, and they would try to show how they had power, and again, this is sort of spirit.
BRIAN FROUD

Art Church People Show Spirit
We almost need another word for fairy, that’s the thing. Once people get to see what fairies’ real power is, then they understand.
BRIAN FROUD

Needs People Real Understand
Faeries are seen through the heart, not through the eyes. Remember that faeries inhabit the interior of the earth and the interior of all things, so look, in the first place, in the interior of yourself.
BRIAN FROUD

Eye Heart Interior Looks Remember
In college, I became interested in folk tales and fairy tales. Gradually I became more and more interested in the underlying meaning of it all and the possibility of the reality of real fairies.
BRIAN FROUD

College Fairy Real Tale Underlying
In the 20th century, artists did a great disservice to fairies. They painted fairies in a way that was shallow and trite. So when people see my stuff, they suddenly realize the depth of fairies.
BRIAN FROUD

Artist Depth Disservice Fairies People

I paint the spirit and soul of what I see.

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I paint the spirit and soul of what I see.

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