Robie Benve Art

I'm very happy and excited that one of my paintings has been accepted into The Ohio Plein Air Society Members Show: Parks en Plein Air At The Springfield Museum of Art,  A Juried, Plein Air Gallery Exhibition On view: Saturday, October 1, 2016 to Saturday, February 4, 2017 This is my first year as Ohio Plein Air Society (OPAS) member, and my first time submitting to this show. I'm thrilled that my painting will be hanging next to those of extremely talented artists "Sunny Flowers at Jeffrey Mansion" Oil on Board 9"x12" When I painted "Sunny Flowers at Jeffrey Mansion" I knew something good must have been happening on my easel, for total strangers passing by had lots of good comments. Well, when you paint en plein air you kind of get used to strangers commenting on what you are doing, but on that day they were way more enthusiastic than usual, so I figured if I had to pick one painting to submit for the OPAS show, it should be th...

"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.

"Tuscan Bales" 20"x24" Acrylic on Canvas Hello, and happy winter everyone! I don't know how it is where you are, but here in Ohio snow falls, temperatures drop, and time flies in winter. I can't believe I haven't posted since the Holidays! Nevertheless, things have been happening and brushes have kept swishing even if I wasn't at the computer much, and did not post many updates - I actually did post some updates, but only on my facebook page. So here is one of my winter babies: Tuscan Bales . Working on this painting made my days feel a little warmer, and looking at it now makes me want to roll down that hill, and smell the hay, which is a great feeling, especially when I look our the window and I see only white, cold snow everywhere. Not much smell in the snow either. :D I had fun painting it, The challenge with Tuscan bales has been trying to create some texture and incorporate bright colors. I like the way it turned out!...

"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, ...

"Towards the Light" 18" x 24" - Acrylic on canvas Currently showing at the "Elusive Nature" show at the Upper Arlington, OH municipal building. As every summer in the last few years I am in Italy. My Italian vacations are different from most people, I don't frantically visit cities and monuments, but I just enjoy spending time with my family. To tell the truth I feel kind of guilty spending days in total laziness, but it's so nice! We have been here six days and only today I got the feeling that "well, maybe we should do something". I'm in the town where I grew up, the neighbors are still exactly the same ones, only older. The gossip did not change much either, there is always someone cheating on the spouse, mistreating their elder parents, or just acting weird. The kids love seeing the grandparents. How comes my parents didn't spoil me growing up as they do with my kids???  lol    It's a good va...