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.

It has been a while since the last time I ventured outside to paint, and last week I did it two days in a row, attracted by a lovely view of sunflowers at a local farm. I had to go back twice because the first day it was super hot and I had to escape after an hour or so. Note to self: don't wear long jeans on a hot day! I got captivated by the view of the farm building through the sunflowers. After laying down some general shapes with the brush, I switched to palette knife painting, I love the texture that it creates.   Lots of bugs around me, this one seemed to particularly enjoy the painting. At a good point, almost done, but needs still some work. I'll post a photo of the final painting in a few days. I have the feeling that when I'll look at it with fresh eyes, it might needs a few small adjustments here and there.

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...

"Path to Health" 6"6" Oil on board SOLD Last year I went to a local park and painted a path in the meadow full of golden rods. Based on that image, I painted this path, but surrounded it with red flowers instead. (Are they poppies? I think they are, but you can decide. :) Paths are very symbolic, and this one in particular made me think of all the sad news I got recently about dear friends and wonderful people fighting with disease, especially cancer. I dedicated this small painting to their recovery. May there be health, strength, and happiness after the curve. To all that are fighting to gain health again: keep strong, keep the fight up. The final result is worth all the sacrifice. Love, R

"Dance with Me" 8"x10" Oil on canvas Available I am falling behind with my posts of daily paintings, but I have been painting more than it seems, I promise. :) This is the painting I completed last Thursday, started at the Cultural Arts Center in the morning, and finished in my studio at home in the evening. However, this week I had a hard time taking good photos of my paintings. My trusted old Canon Powershot broke, and I bought the exactly same one from ebay to replace it, but for some reason the same settings don't render the colors the same way the old one did. It takes more patience and editing in Photoshohp to make it look like the actual painting. So, here is last week's painting, In a moment of romanticism I decided to call it Dance with Me. :)

"Colorful Walk" Oil on masonite panel Ready to pop into a 5"x7" frame SOLD A small colorful landscape painting that I did last fall at a local park. I love to paint small when I paint on location, it gives me the chance to finish in a short time. The colors where so nice and warm, it was a pleasure to paint outdoors surrounded by people walking on the beautiful paths.

"Scioto River" 12"x12" Oil on Board SOLD This is one of my daily paintings for the month of September. 30 days of painting, even though I will not end up with 30 artworks, because some days I am working on bigger pieces - I don't actually get to finish one a day. I really enjoyed painting this landscape, for many reasons. Here are a few: I love this location for plein air, it's at Scioto Park in Dublin, OH. I was able to cover a 12"x12" completely with paint in a relatively short amount of time, which means I am becoming more confident (thus fast) in my painting decisions. The day was just gorgeous: sun shining, light breeze, birds everywhere, including a blue heron and a bald eagle (for real!). The magic of painting outdoors: you get to experience and appreciate the surrounding nature. I had fun rendering the rocks and the water with paint. Both are always a challenge, but I embraced it with positive attitude and I liked the results. ...

"Just Mowed" 6"x6" Oil on board Available Sometimes, when I go out and paint on location with a group, other painters are surprised at the small size of my board. A 6"x6" looks quite small on an easel (and even off the easel, lol) But painting small is a wonderful way to give myself the opportunity to finish the painting in one sitting, on location, taking fully advantage of the limited time available. I usually am productive for a couple of hours tops, then I need to take a break. If I'm with a group I love to walk around to see what everyone else is painting. That gives me an extra boost, because I have some excellent painting companions, and their work can be very inspirational. After two hours a 6"x6" is very close to completion. So the break provides a "fresh view"upon my return, and I am able to better see what's needed as far as finishing touches. If I paint a bigger size board I often end up going home wit...

"Waterfalls at Franklin Park" 8"x10" Sold I recently completed my third session of plein air classes with Joe Lombardo, the first session being last spring.  In these classes we go to a different park each week, Joe does a demo, then we all paint and he comes around and provides constructive critique. Joe has really pushed me to paint faster and loser, two things that I always strive to achieve. A couple of weeks ago we went to Franklin Park, and behind the Conservatory there are these nice waterfalls. However, running water is not easy to paint, an I usually dislike most waterfall paintings I see, be mine or other people's. There is always something "off" about them. At first I thought I was going to choose another subject, but then I said to myself "what the heck, I'm here to learn, I should embrace challenges". I decided to give it a try. A photo of me at Franklin Park while painting the waterfall. To make things a li...

"Rolling Fields at Walnut Woods" 8"x10" SOLD In Ohio it's pretty rare to find hills or mountains. So when I see places with clear terrain lines or a hint of hills, I get very excited about painting them. Walnut Woods Metro Park is one of the few parks around Columbus that offers some nice terrain lines, and I painted this piece on location, a day in early spring, with a few strokes added later in the studio. I realized that that happens a lot to me: finishing a plein air painting in the studio. Truth is, it's hard for me to completely finish a painting on location. Part of it is due to the fact that most days I run out of time and I have to run home to get the kids from school. But to be completely honest with myself, I have to admit that my brain needs a little detachment from the image, I need to see it after a break of time, with fresh eyes, and then I can really see what needs to be done next. Sometimes when I see it again after a break I can...

"Field of Poppies" 6"x6" Oil on Gessoboard SOLD Red, a powerful color. It can really set the mood, and it's a good, vibrant, joyful mood. : )

"Changing Season" 9"x12" Oil on gesso board Last fall I spent a nice Saturday morning at Highbanks park, painting with a group called COPA (Central Ohio Plein Air). The group is open and friendly, and every Saturday they go to a different outdoors location, paint until about 11:30, then have a critique. I don't make it very often, but when I do I really enjoy it. As I was saying this painting is from last fall, but it was not quite finished that day, I still had a few areas of paint to fill when it was critique time. I took it home and did not work on it for a while. Part of the reason is that I had a reference photo, but it's not the same.When you see the landscape in person it's so much better! And going back was not appealing because it got REALLY cold and all the leaves had fallen. So I had no choice but work from the reference photo and finish it up. The pavilion roof gave me some trouble, the color it was did not fit in well with the pai...

"Rocking the Shore" 8"x10" Oil on canvas board SOLD For Prints of this Painting Click Here Not far from my house runs the Scioto river. Even thought it's right in the middle of the state capital, it offers beautiful natural scenes that really inspire me to paint. This one is one of my favorite spots at Scioto park, on the northwest side of town. There was a fisherman behind me while I was painting. I was almost tempted to include him in the scene too, but I had already started the landscape facing the other way. Maybe next time. I painted it on a canvas panel, not on my usual gesso boards, that are so smooth. On the gesso board the brush slides quickly, which makes painting a little faster, but also, somehow, you don't need a huge amount of paint to make it look thick. The texture of the canvas on this panel made the same amount of paint look much thinner, and I had to force myself to load my brushes more to give a thicker look. Still it do...

"Line dancing on the Scioto" 18"x24" Oil on Canvas Available I really like this painting. Unbelievably, even though it looks from a country-side, it's a scene from the Scioto river banks downtown Columbus, under the bicentennial bridge. This is the way it looked a few months ago, when I painted it, now they are excavating and it's full of orange tape, machinery, and mud. I hope it'll go back to be a pretty view soon. It makes me feel calm when I look at it.  : )

"Punchline" 6"x6" Oil on Gesso Board Sold Fall has taken over all of our senses with cooler temperatures, earthy smells, and the gorgeous colors, beautiful consequence of the colder nights. :) As most of my friends know I am taking a painting class with local artist Joe Lombardo, and every week we go to a different location in or around Columbus, OH. This week we went to a park with a big pond that would have been gorgeous to paint, but it was raining, so we stayed under a shelter and the view of the trees near the parking lot was spectacular. Once again I chose to paint small because I wanted to finish the painting on location, and here it is, I called it Punchline because of the brightness and sharpness of the trees, so fun to see, though we know is the last show-off before bare branches. I had fun painting this colorful scene, and some extra fun making a last minute squiggly textures. :) “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ...

"Leaning Towards Winter" 8"x10" Available Fall colors are here, what a marvel for the eyes! I went paintung at Pickerington Ponds Park, in Canal Winchester, OH. This small tree on the banks of a pond had started  getting golden and copper colors, and it was beautifully contrasting with the water and the darker trees in the distance. I had fun painting this, and after a period of very small plein air paintings (6"x6") this is an 8"x10", and I was able to complete it in a couple of hours.  I'm pretty happy about it. :)

"Path in the Prairie" 8"x10" Oil on Gessoboard NFS Today I was finally able to join the COPA (Central Ohio Plein Air) group in one of their Saturday outings to paint on locations around Columbus, OH. Many Saturdays I tried to paint with them, but life has been taking me other places. My view when I was painting "Path in the Prairie" The prairie at Brandon Woods Park were gorgeous with yellow goldenrod, and the sun made them truly glow. :) A few of us decided to paint the same path :)

"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 ...