Robie Benve Art

Last week I went to the Bryn Du Mansion, in Granville, Ohio and volunteered at the 14th Annual Fine Art Juried Show.  One of my paintings, Heading South , has been accepted in the professional category, and I was looking forward to seeing this wonderful show of talented amateur and professional artists. Truly a lot of talent in the exhibit! I volunteer as a docent in the morning and giving a demo in the afternoon. Me painting a demo at Bryn Du Mansion. This has been the first time that I've ever offered a demo with a live audience, I was a little nervous and really did not know what to expect. A couple of art lovers sat through the whole process, a few other patrons came and went. I am very grateful for the two that stayed the whole time because they allowed me to learn a lot of things about myself and the demo-giving process.   I had a lot of fun during the demo! My painting at the end of the demo, still a lot of work to do. I didn't think I woul...

"Where Yesterday Meets Tomorrow" 24"x30" Oil on canvas Available Ah, this place! Every time we go to Pompei I ask to take a walk here, on the promenade of Castellammare di Stabia. The views are always amazing, especially when the sun is setting. The place is full of life, history, nature, and then there is the beach. Just in case all of that was not enough, the food and the ice cream are to-die-for. This is where my husband grew up (lucky him), and where a lot of his friends and family still live. His high school was a few blocks from this spot. I love walking there. I love it when his yesterday meets our tomorrow.

I have two paintings in the 2016 Dublin Area Art League Spring Show, and this is one of them. The other painting in the show is "Shine Your Light" (see previous post) which got an award. When I gave a talk for the Conversation and Coffee event last September, at the Columbus Arts Center, in the audience there was Inga Smith, a talented photographer, that offered to share some of her sunset pictures with me. (How wonderful is that??) She sent me some gorgeous shots of Hawaiian sunsets, and I picked one of Kamaoli Beach II as reference for this painting. "Holding Hands at Kamaoli Beach II" 20"x24" Oil on canvas Available I loved painting it, even with the challenges that I encountered; it has been fun figuring out how to render with paint the different effects in the clouds, foreground, and changes of light. Thanks for stopping by!

"Afternoon Beach, study" 8"x10" Oil on gesso board Available Day three of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge, and I have completed another one, woohoo! This is a quick study of an afternoon beach, from a photo that I took last summer in Calabria, Italy. To get to the beach you had to go down several steps, and the photo was taken from up the stairs, looking down. I completed this study fairly quickly, and had fun including the figures and the umbrellas. I don't usually include people in my paintings, but simplified people are great to give a sense of proportions.

"Golden" 6"x6" Oil on board SOLD For Prints of this Painting Click Here I painted this golden sunset pretty quickly, really enjoying every stroke. It's a small painting, and I am considering making a bigger version; however, part of me is afraid redoing it I will lose the spontaneity and freshness in the execution. The other part of me thinks its worth a try. :) I might just have to get a big square canvas - all of those I have are rectangular - toss all fears to the side, and tackle a bigger version of this baby.

"Refreshing" 8"x10" Oil on Board Sold Sometime we need to get away and spend time doing something relaxing. It's a survivor thing, you've got to unplug every once in a while and do what you love to do, with the people you love. But hey, for the days when I just can't get any farther than the supermarket down the street, looking at pictures like this gives me a little bit of the good feeling I need. It's like a spark of positive thoughts, and I feel refreshed already. Love to create paintings that may serve as positive sparks on someone's wall.  :)

"Castellammare II" 8"x10", oil on panel SOLD I took a photo of this sunset a couple of years ago  in Castellammare di Stabia, the Italian city where my husband grew up. Since then it has been one of my favorite photos from our vacation. I used the photo as fb cover, I had it printed on our family calendar, and of course I painted it, at least a couple of times. This painting was done in one morning, a day where I started out with brushes, but then I decided that I wanted to do something bold. So I painted  with a knife, in thick impasto strokes. The panel was toned orange and that still comes through in many places adding a very warm glow to everything. I love the result, it's colorful and a little abstract. Thanks for visiting! :)

"Cielo - Clouds at Sea" 6x6, Oil on Gessoboard SOLD I don't know if I am just more attentive to the sky in this period, or if the clouds are really more spectacular this time of the year, but over the fall I seem to have developed an obsession for watching clouds, how they change shape and color. My family is probably tired of hearing excited comments about the atmosphere. What can I say, I love sunshine, but cloudy skies are much more interesting, and I make sure I share with whom is around me. :) Sunsets without clouds are not as fascinating. Strangely I never realized that until painting became a main part of my life. If you asked me a few years ago I would have said that I loved sunsets and sunrises, period. Now every time I see a beautiful sky I think of how I would paint it, and this extra attention made me realized that I love cloudy skies better. The things you learn! :) Happy cloud watching!  :)

"View of Tulum" 18" x 24" (45.7 cm x 61 cm) Acrylic on Stretched Canvas, Framed $530 Last year we went to the Riviera Maya, and it was the first family vacation for the four of us ever, unless you count when we go to Italy to see our folks, but that's home, different from a full blown vacation. We had a wonderful time, and I took several photos. This is one of my favorites and I have wanted to paint it ever since. Finally I completed the painting. It took me a while, I got frustrated and I set the painting aside for several weeks, and then brought it out again to continue painting with fresh eyes. Seeing it next to the photo, it looks quite different, starting from the sand that is not as white, but when I tried to paint it clear, the big light area was getting too much attention, distracting from the rocks and the ancient building, which I wanted to be the center of interest. So I darkened the sand and changed few things accordingly. Looking ba...

"Mare Aperto"  (Open Sea) 8"x10"  Acrylic on canvas board SOLD Recently I heard many painters praising the the art of painting on location. I'm sure plein air painting has a special feel to it, the fact that you are there, breathing in the scene, and you can move even so slightly your head and perceive depth, lights and shadows at different levels makes a difference in the painting process and the end result. Most of these fellow artists are oil painters. Unfortunately acrylics dry very quickly - and it is one of the reasons why I enjoy them, so I'm not complaining - and painting outdoors make them dry even faster. I tried painting en plein air with acrylics, but I found it extremely challenging: even using the Liquitex Slow-Dri Fluid Retarder I had trouble keeping the paint fluid. Maybe one day I'll try oils, who knows? Anyway, for this painting Mare Aperto, I sure wish I could have painted on location! During the all painting time I c...

"Boats of Antibes" 15" x 30" (38.1 cm x 76.2 cm) Acrylic on Canvas (click image for bigger version) Boats of Antibes has been a personal challenge for two reasons: the big size - at least for my standards - and the fact that I let my instincts guide me in choosing the colors and the brushwork. I started the painting looking at the reference photo on my monitor screen, then closed it and balanced my visual memory and my feelings, other than trying to be realistic. My goal was to make it personal, trying to let my intuition lead me.  I imagined there was a big cloud that makes half of the harbor shady, and getting the values right has been tricky. To help with the values I took photos of the painting and desaturated them in my computer. Looking at the black & white version really helps spotting value problems. Now I think I’m pretty happy with it, and can finally post it and move on to the next personal challenge. The reference photo is...

"Trieste - value study" 6” x 6” (15.2 cm x 15.2cm) Acrylic on Canvas Panel I rendered a photo I took last summer in Italy using only 4 values. Lots of squinting and comparing. The fun was to try to paint shapes instead of details. The other cool part was mixing my own black and grays. Fun fun with this value challenge by the DPW .