Robie Benve Art

Here is another version of the 4-leaf-clover from the last post. "Lucky" 6"x 6" Paper and Acrylic on panel See on my website I started this one with way more paper than the previous, and at times it was hard to cover the starting ground with extra layers because I really liked some parts of how it looks in the beginning stages. First, I used some red tissue paper, and then I covered that with some fibrous green paper that I got from the art store. Then, I cut shapes out of another special paper (that I bought from the art store as well) all along using soft acrylic gel medium as gluing agent. After this, it was layers upon layers of acrylic paint, trying to keep it transparent in some places, so that you could still see what was underneath. A fun challenge!

Two things happened today in my world. 1. I started a Corona Art Challenge with a weekly theme, and this week the theme is GREEN. 2. I painted a small, very green painting. Not bad for a quiet day indoors, uh? A Wish of Love and Good Luck Paper and acrylic on panel 6"x6" SOLD Now, the people that know me, are aware of my unbelievable luck at finding four-leaf-clovers. Yep, I'm one of those people that just look down and see one. Some people, like my children (lol), are very bothered by that. I guess my eyes easily catch the different pattern of the four leaves compared to the sea of three leavers. Fact is I don't need to loook hard, most times I glance down and see one. This drives my family crazy, because they can't find it even after I say there is one. lol Anyway, this particular one was on the edge of the street at last year's Columbus Arts Festival. It had just finished raining, and I was walking home when I saw it. I took a photo an...

"Bright Rainy Day" 9"x12" Oil on board, unframed What do you do when you get a gray, rainy day? I try to make it colorful. This was my intent with this painting. It was such a dull day that I took it upon myself to put some color into it. I started by toning the board red, and that really gave a popping start to the composition. I also kept the greens brighter than what I saw. Overall I think that I succeeded making it look like there was no sun, but without the typical grayish colors of an overcast day. Some days that's exactly what we need to do.  Keep the smile on our lips and the love in our hearts, even if life is not smiling back at us. I painted this at Scioto Park in Dublin, OH, which happens to be one of my favorite outdoors painting locations. It's right on the banks of the Scioto river, and that offers so many opportunities for painting inspirations. I do prefer when it's sunny, though, when I can get out from under the shelt...

"After the Rain" 8"x10" Oil and acrylic on canvas Available Sometimes if I am driving home and I see a nice sunset I make a stop at the park to have a clear vision of the sky, across the large green area. If I am lucky enough I get decent photos from the view. This was one of those times. I started the painting in acrylics, and actually meant to finish with acrylics, but then decided that it needed some of the buttery consistence of oil paint, and covered most of it with a layer of oil paint, though some of the acrylic colors are still visible. At this point it's impossible even for me to know which is which. “The purpose of learning is growth,  and our minds, unlike our bodies,  can continue growing as long as we live.” ~ Mortimer Adler

"Summer Blooms" 12"x12" Mixed media (oil and acrylic) on board, unframed Available This painting has been an experiment, with the purpose of troubleshooting a problem. First I painted it with acrylic paint on a very smooth gesso board. The smoothness made the paint slide everywhere, showing too many transparencies. Even with several layers of paint, it still looked like there was not enough and the painting was not finished. So I thought I could try painting over it with oils. In fact you can paint over acrylics with oils, though you can not paint with acrylics, which are water-based, over oils. Oils are thicker and more buttery, and they solved the problem of the thin look. I am happy with my solution. :) I may do more with this mixed media technique! In fact I have another painting similar to this one (same composition but flipped horizontally) that I did with acrylics, and somehow it looked more finished. I may go over with oils on that one too, ...

"Fairies' Shelter" 6"x6" Oil on Gessobord SOLD In my pursuit of the thirty paintings in 30 days challenge, I have skipped a few days... so technically this is my fifth painting even if today is the 8th of the month. And yes, I am planning on catching up - who said the 30 paintings must be one-a-day?  Maybe I can be brave and strong and produce more than one painting a day... think positive Robie, you can do anything you put your mind to!  :) I painted "Fairies' Shelter" en plein air , and the sun played tricks on me because it disappeared 5 minutes after I started painting, and came out again when I was on my way home. Do you realize how frustrating it is to have seen the warm colors kissed by the sun, in patches through the leaves above, and then everything gets dull and low contrast, and you try to render the feeling of what you saw first, without actually seeing it? Well, for a moment I thought of going back to the studio and leave ...

Cypress Shadows, Watercolor, 9"x12" One day I was in Google Street View, looking around the Italian Tuscan countryside, and I found so many great views. Besides making me a little homesick, it also inspired me to paint them, so I saved several images in a folder. This painting is from one of those photos, I don't remember exactly where it was, but surely in the neighborhoods of San Gimignano. I was inspired to start painting this particular view by the Daily Paint Work challenge of the week: The Shadow Challenge. It has been fan to play with watercolors again, I think I want to do another one. Hopefully soon. :) "Constant development is the law of life,  and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas  in order to appear consistent  drives himself into a false position."     - Mohandas K. Gandhi

 Red Tulips 5.5" x 8.5" acrylic on sketch paper (Click image for larger version) Why is it so hard to resume painting after few weeks off? First a was on vacation in Italy, then I was at a wedding in CT, now I’m finally home, but relatives are staying with us for the summer and I'm busy keeping four children entertained every day. ;) Yesterday I took them to the park, and said “stay in sight, don't get hurt, 'cause I'm gonna paint for half an hour or so". And it worked. I got the chance to break the ice painting this tulip field on my sketch book - not fancy, but the red color kind of reinvigorated me, and I'm looking forward to the next paint occasion (hopefully for a longer time).  :)

--> “Nutty Squirrel” 5" x 7" (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)  Acrylic on canvas panel --> On first trip to the USA, I went for walks in Frederick, MD and at the end of each day I was proud to report in detail to my boyfriend how many squirrels, groundhogs, blue jays, cardinals, etc. I saw. I was in awe looking at the wildlife on the city streets. You just don’t see these kind of urban wildlife in Italy. That was in 1997. Now I'm married to that boyfriend, we live in Columbus, Ohio and have squirrels and chipmunks running like crazy in our yard, (I even saw a couple of opossums the other day) and these nutty squirrels eat all the bird food and even broke a couple of feeders fighting over it. Nevertheless, they are cute, and the point of having a feeder is to get wild animals coming to it, so I’m complaining, but not too much.:) I just wished they stopped digging holes everywhere in the yard! Jokingly we say we have squirrels with Alzheimer...

 5" x 7" (12.7 cm x 17.8 cm)  Acrylic on canvas panel Once upon a bird, there was a black one who liked to live in open grassy areas, but one day he flew to a marsh in the middle of the forest…. What happened then?  No one seems to know. Rumors say he met a cute mate and started a family that loved to live in the shady forest; others state he missed the grassy landscape so much he soon flew back to his flock and had an adventurous life. I am so lucky that I got to paint him in the exact moment when a life-changing thought stroke his mind… even if I don’t know what that thought was, that reflection brought to the decision that determined his future. One thing is sure: he never regretted his choice and he lived happily and singing ever after. This painting was submitted to the DAPT panting challenge. It should soon appear on Lela Stankovic’s web site . A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Chinese Proverb