Robie Benve Art

"Hopes and Smiles" 12'x12" Oil on  linen panel in floater frame Sold Another en plein air landscape painting of the Park of Roses, in Clintonville, OH. I did this one day after the previous post. I really loved that tall tree with cool colors, and I enjoyed the challenge of painting it, as well as the sprinkles of the fountain.

"New Buds of Joy" Oil on linen panel in floater frame 9"x12" Sold A Plein air landscape painting of the Park of Roses in Clintonville, OH. The roses were blooming that week, and the whole experience of being at the park was really joyful. I had a lot of fun painting with palette knives. It creates a nice texture, and it keeps me out of the temptation of adding too many details.

Ahhh, Spring! I hadn't painted outdoors in a while!! (I'm a little late posting this, but it has been a busy few weeks)  Spring in Ohio is crazy, you never know what you are going to get, one day it may be in the 70s and the day after it may snow. Planning an outdoors painting session is always risky. First Pein Air Outing: Pickerington Ponds Metro Park My first day of plein air painting in 2018 was on March 29, very early on the calendar, and I was a little worried about it; you are very likely to get a snow blizzard in Ohio at the end of March. However, it turned out to be a gray and rainy day, but not too cold. I met with a group of eager artists, lead by the awesome teacher: Joseph Lombardo, in Pinkerington Ponds Metro Park. Joe always does a demo at the beginning of class, then the group breaks out and we each start our own painting.  Since I've taken Joe's plein air classes several times now, I decided to paint along during the demo, instead of sitti...

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...

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 ...

"See You Later" 24"x24" Oil on Canvas $650 Inniswood Gardens is a wonderful Park in Westerville, Ohio. I love to go there and walk around, on my own, with friends, and also with my kids. The park has several different areas, with specific habitats, and environments, and nice areas for kids to play, including a great tree house. Anyway, this painting features the boardwalk in the wooded area, and a barred owl, a bird that can actually be seen in the park. On a personal level, I am very attached to the park because they gave me the opportunity to have my solo show in the Innis house last fall. I had several of my landscapes in the show, and the reception was well attended, thanks to the terrific support from the staff and the patrons. Can't wait for the fall colors to be back, that's my favorite season in any park! "See You Soon" will be in the show "Reflexion from the WAAL", the fall show for Worthington Area Art League Me...

  "Triad at Three Creeks Metro Park" 12"x12" Oil on masonite panel On Thursday we had another thunder-stormy and very wet day on our Plein Air outing. (At this point we look at each other and laugh "It must be Thursday!" lol)  The challenge of the day was to create a painting with a specific color scheme, and here is my painting using of a triadic color scheme: red orange, blue-violet, and yellow-green. Great exercise! Thanks Joe Lombardo for the inspiration!  To lift our spiri ts up, we were joined by a lively and excited group of graduates that were celebrating their academic successes under the same shelter that was keeping us dry.  The sun came out, and I made it out of there before a football hit my easel, and without getting soaked by water weapons. Another success story! wewwww!

"Yield to Pedestrian" Oil on Panel, 12"x16", framed Available on my website Every week I go on a plein air outing with a group led by the talented Joe Lombardo. Last weeek we did a few 10-minute studies of different views of the same park, then it started pouring and we had to flee. The 10-minute studies were fun and non-committal, I just had to get the main ideas down, no need to make a finished painting. And they were small. Easy peasy. This week, the task was to make a big painting en plein air, and finish it. What??? The weather was crappy again, and I really dislike painting rainy landscapes. I was really intimidated, so I picked a board that was big, but not huge. A 12"x16" would do. Much bigger than the usual 6"x6" I get out on rainy days. : ) But I was determined to do it. I had a strategy. :) I talked to my self in the car, on the way there. I told myself: I am fearless. I am talented. I am courageous. I am creativ...

"Red Berries" 5"x7" Oil on Gessoboard Small oil painting of red berries. I painted it from life at one of the Metro Parks here in town. Fun! :) R

"A Stroke of Spring" Oil on masonite board Ready to pop into a 9"x12" frame Available Spring seemed to come and go this year in Oh io .  A few days of warmth, and nature was rejoicing, tender green leaves were sprouting everywhere.  Then winter seemed to come back, and it got freezing cold again, like on this c-c-cold day when I painted at Pickerington Ponds Metro Park.  But the signs of spring were there to cheer me up , and I enjo ed every minute of it. : )