Original Fine Art Catalog
Available Artwork
“Bret Arenson is a Sausalito abstract painter whose canvases grow from spontaneous, bodily gesture. Working in acrylic and oil, often with handmade brushes from found objects, he paints in series such as Spirit House, Gazing Window, Koan and Nature Screen.”
— Bret Arenson
The Process
Inside the Studio
The Painting Process
Bret's process starts in the body, not in a sketch. When he paints, every gesture is spontaneous. He relaxes, finds his balance and waits for an impulse, then lets it come fully, never knowing where the brush will go next. He doesn't build a composition from planned shapes; he knows how gestures tend to pile up, and he lets the picture form from that accumulation. Tools matter. Bret makes many of his own brushes and pens from natural and found objects, and each one leaves its own particular mark. He is just as curious about found and natural substances and surfaces, and about what they can say when used in a completely direct way. In his drawings he works with goose quills and coloured inks on paper. On canvas he layers acrylic and oil, often in series that explore one idea from many sides: the tall Spirit House canvases, the square Gazing Window and Koan paintings, the large Nature Screen and Dark Ecstatic Screen works. Some pieces grow into multi-panel works or immersive installations, like the five-panel, 25-foot painting shown at the Bay Model in 2024. For Bret, the inner experience, the putting down of material and the physical result are one whole. He never set out to draw in an automatic way; the discovery surprised him, and the feeling of working like this is unlike any other. It is curiosity about what he will find next that keeps him going.
