Visiting Artist Scott Bricher is working on his latest figurative oil painting this week in the Richmond Art Center while students come in and out of the studios for art classes and to observe Mr. Bricher at work.  

Mr. Bricher, who lives and works in Kent, Conn., is on campus all week as part of the Adolf and Virginia Dehn Visiting Artist Program. 

“I've made my living doing art,” Mr. Bricher said in an interview. “I met my wife in art school. Our daughter is an artist. It’s everything, 24-7. I do it for joy, I do it for a living, I do it because it’s the air that I breathe and the water I swim in. It is mostly what I think about.” 

A figurative oil painter, Mr. Bricher has done a range of jobs through the years to support his passion for painting, from commercial art to what turned into a dream job as a regular freelancer doing illustrations and covers for MAD Magazine, the satirical print product that took aim at all aspects of life and public figures.  

“I grew up reading the magazine,” Mr. Bricher said. “I was a fan from the first time I picked up an issue. It was demanding but exciting to be among the people I grew up loving.” MAD closed its New York offices about eight years ago and in 2019 stopped printing regularly. Mr. Bricher met one of his MAD heroes — Al Jaffee — at a party when the New York offices closed. Mr. Jaffee was responsible for one of the iconic features of the magazine, the fold-in that, when folded, revealed a different picture and caption. “That was a real dream come true,” Mr. Bricher said of meeting Mr. Jaffee. 

Also a dream come true is the MAD Magazine exhibit that includes some of Mr. Bricher’s pieces. The exhibit was at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., in 2024 and now is in Cincinnati. One of Mr. Bricher’s pieces in the exhibit was a centerspread in MAD, a takeoff on the famous painting of dogs playing poker. In Mr. Bricher’s version, the dogs are playing video games. Mr. Bricher grew up in Ohio and brought his father and younger sister to the Cincinnati exhibit. “That was pretty exciting,” he said.

On Tuesday, December 9, students from a painting class ventured over to where Mr. Bricher was working. Their art teacher, Mark Zunino, introduced Mr. Bricher and encouraged the students to stop by and see the artist working at any time as the process unfolds. “If you want to watch a painting appear, that is why he is here,” Mark said. 

Mr. Bricher put his brush down and talked about his journey and his process. He has a sketchbook, which he says, for an artist, is akin to what a journal is for a writer. The sketchbook might be where a painting starts. He also has a stylus on his phone, which he uses to sketch ideas. He has long used technology in his craft. 

“With all the things that I learned as an illustrator and commercial artist, I had new sets of tools,” he said. “I’ve been using [Adobe] Photoshop for 30-some years; I’ve done 3D modeling. So all these things are part of my tool kit. Even though I am making a painting, getting that painting ready or assembling it — the painting always starts with an idea, but then I have all these tools that help me flesh it out.” 

The process for the painting he is working on in the RAC went from his sketchbook to his phone to Photoshop, then to Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence (AI) program. He told the students, “Years ago there were stock photography houses, professional photos you could buy to use in projects. Now with AI, essentially everyone has a stock photo library. So if you have an idea in your head, look for exactly what you want. Don’t just go for the first thing you see because it is cool. Start with an idea and make [the prompts in AI] live up to your idea.” 

Mr. Bricher embraces technology to inform his work, but in the end it is all about him, the paint, and the brush working as one. He said he is always excited for his next painting. “I just love to paint ... getting absorbed in something and figuring out how to do it,” he said. “And then using all these skills gained over the years and push[ing] the painting forward and hopefully do[ing] better this time than the last. There’s nothing like moving paint around.” 

The painting he is working on combines a stunning sunset he viewed in Provincetown, Mass., owls he sees and hears outside his home, and memories of his Boy Scout days. Not unlike a writer, he is telling stories in much of his work. Each day he is on campus, the painting progresses, the story develops. 

Nearby sits a portrait that he painted of a woman, the shading and tones such that her face is almost jumping off the wood on which she is painted. Mr. Bricher said he spent a bit of extra time on that one. The painting is of his daughter, Naya, a painter who lives in Provincetown. Mr. Bricher’s wife, Mary Terrizzi, is a multi-disciplinary artist. As he said, art is 24-7, the air he breathes, the air the family breathes.