A million ways to decorate your home or office with world renowned artists April 26, 2008
Decorating you home or office has never been easier when you can choose from a wide selection of fine art by world renowned artists! Enjoy…
Gary Benfield April 23, 2008
Gary Benfield was born December 6th, 1965 in Birmingham, England. He studied art at Stourbridge College of Art (1982 – 1984) and at Wrexham College of Art (1984 – 1986). In 1986, Benfield became a professional freelance illustrator. After leaving the academic world he set up his own studio near London and concentrated on drawing and painting figures. Within a few years, his work was being collected throughout Europe and his reputation had become firmly established. Benfield has a natural talent for depicting things as seen. His work is spontaneous and reflected by his drawn lines and dashes of color. The figures dissolve in and out of their backgrounds and move across the canvas. He paints rapidly and discards most of his paintings and drawings, keeping only those he feels are perfected in their conception rather than overwork those that are not correct.
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“I cannot remember a time without drawing. It was natural for me as a child to use both my hands when painting and drawing and this ambidexterity has remained with me in my adult life as an artist. I love the beauty of the line and I use these skills to create and transform inert materials into images of beauty and romance.
There are aspects of our lives, our existence and experience which remain as a constant, not subject to historical variation. We fall in love, have children and experience a whole gamut of emotions as people always have. And we have always sought to express these fundamental experiences in an aesthetic manner, through painting and poetry. As an artist it is this imaginative role in transforming materials – paint, graphite, charcoal – to create this aesthetic dimension which I love.”
The sensual nature of Benfield’s work comes, in part, from his spontaneous, gestural process. He starts by loosely brushing a very thin layer of oil on Belgian linen, a fine-tooth, pre-primed canvas. After putting down a rough shape, he blots areas with tissue or scratches into the texture. As shapes develop, he starts drawing into it, never quite knowing how it’ll turn out. “The pencil actually almost disappears, and other bits go very dark and heavy,” he said. “It’s quite nice. It’s a little bit like watercolor in a way. You never quite know what’s going to happen. Sometimes the nicest things come out of the mistakes.”
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| Gary Benfield Tenderness Seriolithograph On Deluxe Paper |
