Courtney Derrick is, at her core, a creator. In college, a self-imposed urge and a leap of faith took her from a music scholarship to art classes, and she immersed herself in her obsession. Extensive work in graphic design afforded the opportunity to collect experience, but Courtney knew her preferred medium was a far more tactile one. After receiving her BFA from the University of Utah in 2002, she put brush to canvas and sought to find her niche in landscape, still life, and portraiture. Technical training in college notwithstanding, Courtney’s artistic process is a practice in adventure and failure. “I want the painting to be alive—juicy paint and variations in texture, color, and value. I don’t think of the painting as precious. If I do, things invariably tighten up and the spontaneity is lost.”
Courtney runs on inspiration from sources both expected and unlikely. Van Gogh, Euan Uglow, and John Singer Sargent lend influence rooted in her preferred styles of work, but her four children have had a powerful affect on her own approach: “They are willing to waste paint and use a million sheets of paper, and ultimately, they don’t care about any opinion of the final product aside from their own. It’s a fearless approach to art.” Her own process is one that begins like a subconscious outpour of expression, after which she begins to refine and rework. In 2012, Courtney began an apprenticeship under internationally-renowned artist, Randall Lake, who has encouraged her to further distill that process: “Hurry and screw it up, so you can fix it.” Later that same year, Courtney was commissioned for 14 oil paintings for Pallet Bistro, a Salt Lake City restaurant that has since been featured for its award-winning interior design.
“I want the viewer to have an experience with my paintings, but often times, the thought I initially wanted to express is replaced by something entirely different in the process. That’s what’s so exciting to me.”