Robie Benve Art

"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.

"Fruit, Foam, and Paper" 9"x12" Oil on board Available Painting a still life from photo might be ok, but it is not as much fun or as challenging as painting it with the actual setup in front of you. The fun of painting a still life is in painting from direct observation. For every painting, and this one was no exception, my gut instinct would be to paint every single little detail, trying to make a photographic representation of the objects. However, as much as I admire hyper-realistic painters, I like lose, painterly artwork much better. So I try to forget about all the details, simplify, and let the paint be paint. Let the paint be paint. I love that sentence. It has become my new painting mantra. When I get nervous about a subject being too challenging, I repeat it to myself, and it helps a lot getting rid of the overthinking and of any worry. It's ok to see the brushstrokes, without blending. It's ok to suggest the subject, but leave o...

"Fragola" 6"x6", Oil on stretched canvas What I love about making daily paintings is the variety. Since the paintings are smaller and finished in one day (that's why it's called daily painting, duh!) I get to paint a lot of different things, and every time I can choose if I paint from photo, from life, or plein air. This strawberry was from life, and I got to find out that it's not as easy to paint as it may seem!  But that was part of the fun. I ended up watching a couple of videos on youtube about painting strawberries, and I have to say it helped a lot. In particular they made me see how important the little seeds and the reflections are to make it look "strawberrish". :) Ciao!

"Peachy Still Life" 11” x 14”  (27.9 cm x 35.6 cm) Acrylic on Canvas Panel Another still life, another painting out of my comfort zone! :) I’m still working on loosing up my style, and it definitely was not easy with this one. I’m pretty happy that I can pretty much paint what I see. However, one day I’ll be able to change the colors and the details of what I see to express what my mind sees.  It’s a blessing to have a goal that requires practice and imagination. :)  I had a hard time taking a good picture: the dark background and the blues look totally different in photo, so I had to shoot several times and photoshop it a little to get closer to the real colors. Thanks to Lela  Stankovic for the challenge! I would not have picked this subject on my own, and because of that I enjoyed it and had fun.

5" x 5"  (12.7 cm x 12.7 cm)   Acrylic on stretched canvas SOLD                          I made some progress on the “hands” painting, but then I decided to set it aside for a while, because it wasn’t going very well… maybe a break will help. :) So I went to tackle the painting challenges from my favorite sites. What a productive day I had yesterday! I was stuck inside for all the rain, and it felt so good to paint and be creative! These cherries are for the Lela Stankovic’s challenge.  I liked the way they lean on each other, almost seems like they are rubbing their foreheads together, thus the title. To see the reference photo and submissions by other artists on the DAPT website click here . One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  8"x10"   Acrylic on Canvas Panel  Donated to mankind by the kaki, a tree that has been cultivated for more than 2000 years in China, the persimmon could be the symbol for patience. If you try to eat it before it’s ripen, you’d sure regret it, but if you manage to wait until the right time comes, it’s so sweet and juicy that you’ll love it for life! The painting is from a photo posted by artist Lela Stankovic, for the Paint And Draw Together challenge.  I straggled a little with values and brushwork, but overall it has been a fun ride and I learned a lot on the way. :)