He was first placed for instruction under an engraver, but subsequently began to earn a living by painting portraits in miniature, and became a student at the Royal Academy.
The first which attracted notice was The Schoolboy—"He whistled loud to keep his courage up" (Blair's Grave)— exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824, and engraved by J. Romney.
Other pictures by Farrier were engraved by Mrs. W. H. Simmons (The Loiterer), C. Rolls (Hesitation), E. Portbury (Minnie O'Donnell's Toilet), William Ward Jr. (The Mischievous Boy), Thomas Fairland (lithograph, The Village Champion) and William Fairland (lithograph, The Culprit Detected).
[4] In 1837 his painting A Philosopher in Search of the Wind, was engraved in stone by Thomas Fairland.
His sister, Charlotte Farrier, was also an artist: she had a large practice as a miniature-painter and was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy.