Robie Benve Art

I'm a little late posting this, it has been a very busy week. Day five of the 20-minute challenge "A Walk on the Beach" 8"x8" Mixed Media, acrylic and paper Available on my website The fun I had doing this is hard to explain. Mostly due to the fact that I worked from a mixed media under-painting done with paper, acrylic gel, plus hand-cut stencils and acrylic paint. The random texture and patterns on the base made the behavior of the paint very unpredictable, and I really enjoy the ground color shining through. I created the under-painting before deciding what I would paint on it.

Daily Painting Challenge Ok, this time is not a 30 paintings in 30 days challenge, this is a challenge that says "paint fast, with no time to overthink it, create a painting in 20 minutes, with no pressure to create a masterpiece, just get it done and practice quick decision making and fuss-less application. Do it for five days in a row." And day one is DONE!  :) I painted this on a 6"x6" wood panel, using acrylic paint. It took me a few extra minutes, but I was in a room with other painters and we were having a nice conversation, so I cut myself a little slack. Here it is.... "Purple Trees" 6"x6" acrylic on wood panel Daily Challenge: a 20-minute painting $45 The questions that go through my head at the end of the process: Is if finished? Do I like it? Would I call it successful? Sometimes the answers are not that straight forward, it might take a few days without looking at the painting and then, when I see it with fresh e...

Ok, here is the final grouping of all the paintings I have completed in Sept 2018. They are not 30, but some are quite large and took several days, so no complaints here. Five are oil paintings, 11 are mixed media. I'm afraid I might have forgotten one or two... oops.  Paintings completed in September 2018 by Robie Benve Not too bad, eh? :) I left out a bunch of unfinished abstract background paintings that I have done, they'll come in handy for the next round. They'll be my head start. :) Once again, thanks a lot to Leslie Saeta for setting up the painting challenge and for leading the way. Here is the link to the challenge page. https://www.saetastudio.com/september-2018-30-in-30-paintings Peace :)

These are two more pieces that I've worked on during the month of September, during the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. These are oil paintings, and I worked on them in small intervals at my studio at the High Road Gallery & Studios. I left all my oil paints there and the mixed media paints and tools in my home studio, so wherever I went, I had some work in progress, and it's kind of nice to pick up working on a painting started on another day. The break lets you see it with fresh eyes and a new perspective. These both need more touches, but most of the surface is covered and the subject is pretty clear, so here they come.   "Flying Home, work in progress" Oil on board The cityscape below needs a lot of highlights and final details. Also, the colors in the photo are off. "Short North Evening, work in progress" Oil on panel. Thanks a lot to Leslie Saeta for leading the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. This is my 6th year doing i...

The busy month of September 2018, with its 30 paintings in 30 days challenge ended!!! Here is one more of my paintings completed in September. "Look Up and Cheer" Study 9"x12" Mixed media on canvas Sold I have a few more finished and half-finished paintings that I have not posted yet, hopefully I'll be able to take photos and post tomorrow. Even if I did not complete 30 paintings, as the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge seems to require,  I feel good nevertheless. I painted way more than I would have done without the challenge, I experimented new things, and I had lots of fun. Some days I had no time to paint at all, on other days I had to find the time with big efforts. Overall it has been a period of great discovery. I tried to do mostly studies with mixed media, using acrylic paint, paper, fibers, and home-made stencils, and this one is an example of the colorful palette that came out from this very out-of-the-box technique. I also managed...

"Red Glow" 9"x12" Mixed Media on canvas SOLD Here is another mixed media painting that started from a very random underpainting, full of colors and textures, and then I decided to turn it into a bright sunset on a rocky shore. I created the ground texture with paper of different kinds, including paper doilies, and with peelings from the dry palette. I painted over with acrylic paint, using various brushes and some home-made stencils for interesting patterns. I really like how it turned out. It makes me smile. :)

Last week an artist friend saw my latest paintings and told me that the colors reminded him of Wolf Kahn's work. Uh? Honestly I had no idea of how his work looked like, so I googled it and... I loved his colors and the simple shapes in the composition. Here is a small painting inspired by what I saw. "Standing Tall" 6"x6" Mixed Media on canvas $40 Thanks for stopping by.

The 30 in 30 Challenge Has Ended! On February 1st I embraced the challenge of creating 30 pieces in 30 days, and I committed to exploring mixed media for 30 days. How did I do? Overall, I feel like it went well! The month started very productively. I was painting and posting daily, then I've fallen behind with the daily postings , but even if on a few days I did not find the time or the energy to paint, I learned more about mixed media and about myself, what I like. This journey can be summarized in four key points:   Color  -  Texture  -  Simple Shapes   -  Fibers Some of my colorful creations from the 30 in 30 challenge (Feb 2018) 1. Color The first thing I realized, on the first days of the challenge, is that I LOVE COLOR SO MUCH. Color is what had me inspired to paint at the very beginning, and somehow I abandoned the idea of painting with "made up" colors, and I started painting things as I see them....

I fell behind posting my daily mixed media daily paintings and studies, the 30 days are almost over so I need to get busy posting now. In this painting I tried oil pastels after a looong time, I think last time I used oil pastels I was in middle school... let's skip over how long ago that was. I stated with markers, ink, and acrylic paint, then I drew ad pained with oil pastels, and finally I smoothed them out with odorless turpentine. "Yellow Dove Study" 10"x15" Mixed Media on paper I hope you can tell I was having fun and feeling free while doing it.

It's no mystery what inspired this piece of another strong woman, full of knowledge. My house is truly full of music these days. Between the kids practicing their instruments, my radio, and the Festival of the Italian Music that aired this week, it has been hard to choose what to listen to. Furthermore, my daughter shared with us her research project about how music makes you smarter and  healthier. It came as a natural thing to include musical notes and symbols with this figure. "Musical" 15"20" mixed media on paper There were a few more things that I wanted to add, but I ran out of time, so I'll keep the ideas for the next one. Below are some shots of the progress steps. beginning Drawing and ink acrylic paint Paint, markers, colored pencil, and tissue paper more of all the above almost done "Musical" final stage “Music gives a soul to the universe,  wings to the mind,  flight to the imaginati...

Day three, two more small collages of hand-painted paper coming from my studies and sketches tore into peaces. Today I made two, yay me!  lol For the first, I was inspired to create another of the classic compositions, the one called "steelyard", in which two shapes of different size are on each side of the horizon. It evolved into something a little different from the initial idea, but that's the beauty of these daily projects. Go with the flow...   :) "Steelyard" 4'5" x 5.5" paper and acrylic For the second one, I was just placing shapes and colors without thinking too much, and it turned out to be an abstract image that reminded me of the pillars of an ancient temple. "Pillars" 4'5" x 5.5" paper and acrylic

All right, here we go, the first post of the month! As I mentioned before, this month, during the daily painting challenge called 30 Paintings in 30 Days, I am focusing on experimenting with abstract compositions and mixed media. Paint, drawing, collage, fibers, stitches, all could come into play. I have a vague idea of what I'd like to try, let's see if what happens as the days go by. Here is the first composition a collage of hand painted paper. It's quite small, made with pieces of hand-painted paper, attached with acrylic soft gel. The photo is a little dark, I'l try to get a better shot tomorrow. "Start With a Heart" 3.5"x4" Collage I had fun making it! I started out with the idea to create an L shape (or rectangular) composition, then I added the yellow square on the left, but it was too bright. An L-shaped blue paper on top, rotated just so, takes away some of the brightness and looks like a heart.  Nice way to start...

Twice a year, for the past few years (I think four) I have joined the 30-in-30 painting challenge, and it's always a blast!  It gives me the incentive to create more and faster, to experiment working on small scale works or studies.  It's coming up in a few days!! And this time I'm doing something new. My goal this time will be to experiment with mixed media and abstract painting. I know, very different for my usual style. I feel like I need this right now.  The focus is to have fun and think outside the box, push some boundaries. Let's see what happens.  I might end up hating the 30 new pieces, or loving them, we'll see. More likely it'll be something in between.  Whatever happens, I am sure at the end of the month I'll feel like I've learned a lot. It always happens. I'm soooo excited about this! I hope I can find the time to create every day, and to take pictures of the daily work, and post it. Some...

In September I committed to painting 30 paintings in 30 days, or at least getting as close as I could to painting every day. I ended up doing pretty good, considering how busy the month was. You can read the blog post with a photo of the whole "production" here . A few of the September paintings were done by covering up an old painting that I didn't like. And... oh boy!!!     I think that triggered the one single most important thing I discover about myself in September: I love starting from a complex ground, that has texture, shapes, and different colors.  I enjoy the challenge of keeping some of the under-painting showing though in between brush strokes.  It keeps the painting loose and creates interesting visual effects. And it feels finished much sooner, preventing the most popular mistake for all painters: over-painting. Below you can see how I turned an old plein air landscape into a new one, step-by-step. Over There - Painting Over an Old Unfav...

So, in September I pledged to paint as much as I could, 30 paintings in 30 days, to be precise. How did I do? Was I able to reach the goal? I don't know about you, but for me September seems to be one of the busiest months of the year, every year. I love embracing a painting challenge like the 30 in 30 because it gives me the incentive to try extra hard to paint as often as I can, on a month in which I would probably put painting on the back burner, otherwise. As expected, some days I did not get to paint, and other days I did not focus on the challenge, but worked on my hand-painted greeting cards, or I on bigger-ongoing paintings. However, on other days I was able to paint several little studies, then of course there have been the good days, when I actually started and finished a single painting. Long story short, below is a photo of the September production (minus some greeting cards and a couple of big painting there have been work in progress for a while). Not to...

Today I went out to paint with a group lead by the talented artist Joe Lombardo and we painted at the Whetstone Metro Park, in Columbus, OH. Sadly, today was the last outing of this session, but the good thing is that we managed to squeeze in a one-hour demo by Joe, a critique session with pot-lock, and a little less than a couple of hours of individual painting. Yay us! I had brought with me several panels with old paintings that plan to paint over, and I picked a small 5"x7" panel as the paint-over candidate of the day. Starting from a previously painted panel that I don't like, frees me in several ways.  First of all I have no fear of ruining it, it can't get much worse than something I don't like, right? So I paint with less fear, and it helps me keeping the strokes fresh and loose. One other advantage is that the canvas is already covered in paint, and I can use the specks of the old painting showing through in between strokes, and make them work for ...

"Still Covered" 8"x10" Oil on panel Available On my Thursday class at the Cultural Arts Center the instructor, Brent Payne, set-up a still life for those that wanted to accept the challenge and give it a try. I loved the idea, and I painted it in a couple of hours. The relative speed kept it painterly and impressionistic, and I like that.

"Three Apples" 6"x6" oil on panel SOLD Painted from life in about a couple of hours during my Thursday morning class at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center. The instructor, Brent Payne, challenges us with still life set-ups or live models every week. I kind of need that extra encouragement to paint from observation. Very different than painting from photo. A great exercise, somehow similar to painting a landscape en plein air. The original was only  6"x6", but you can now order prints up to 24'x24' on Imagekind. Click here to see available sizes and cost.

"Path in the Golden Field" 5"x7" Oil on panel SOLD This small painting is based on a quick study that I did at Pickerington Park back in October. I painted this not looking at a photo of the actual park, but looking at the photo of the painting I did at the park. (hope this makes sense) That was fun! And, since the painting work had already been done, and decision about composition, color, value, and temperature already been made, it made the problem solving involved with each brushstroke much faster. Curious fact: the study was actually bigger than this painting. I realize now that I have not posted most of my fall plein air paintings. I'll try to do better in the next days. In the meanwhile January is almost over and I have only partially caught up with my 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Still working on it, though. : ) Thanks for reading. Blessings to you and your loved ones!

"Love and Peace" 3"x3" acrylic on canvas, with mini easel Sold  A couple of small paintings that I did thinking of the celebration of love for Valentine's Day. All we need is love. : ) "My Heart Is Your Prisoner" 2"x2" acrylic on canvas, with mini easel Sold