Robie Benve Art

"Free Spirit" 30"x48" Oil on Canvas SOLD I love skies paintings. After I started adding birds to the skies, I love them even more. This painting in particular has a lot of significance to me; I liked it so much that used it on my business cards and artist statement. Something about the many layers of meaning of a white dove flying with spread wings just captures me completely. I had it hanging at the opening reception at the High Road Gallery and Studios on Sunday, and I got a lot of great feedback about this painting in particular. To add to the happiness, I sold it! Free Spirit is going to a nice condo in Florida, home of a wonderful gentleman that I had the pleasure to meet last week. Now I am even more inspired to paint skies and birds! Feeling thankful. :) 

"Still Covered" 8"x10" Oil on panel Available On my Thursday class at the Cultural Arts Center the instructor, Brent Payne, set-up a still life for those that wanted to accept the challenge and give it a try. I loved the idea, and I painted it in a couple of hours. The relative speed kept it painterly and impressionistic, and I like that.

"Three Apples" 6"x6" oil on panel SOLD Painted from life in about a couple of hours during my Thursday morning class at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center. The instructor, Brent Payne, challenges us with still life set-ups or live models every week. I kind of need that extra encouragement to paint from observation. Very different than painting from photo. A great exercise, somehow similar to painting a landscape en plein air. The original was only  6"x6", but you can now order prints up to 24'x24' on Imagekind. Click here to see available sizes and cost.

"Sun & Snow" 9"x12" Oil on panel Sold I've had  this reference photo for a while, and always wanted to paint it, but I was always afraid of the challenging subject. Snow is not easy to paint, and all those trees can surely risk to look naive once painted. I've been pulling up the photo to paint it, only to postpone it for a while, each time. I finally found the courage, and here is is. For better or for worse: Sun and Snow. And I have to admit, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I tried to use no pure white to represent the snow, and made the trees impressionistic. I like it. : )  (Phewww)

"Path in the Golden Field" 5"x7" Oil on panel SOLD This small painting is based on a quick study that I did at Pickerington Park back in October. I painted this not looking at a photo of the actual park, but looking at the photo of the painting I did at the park. (hope this makes sense) That was fun! And, since the painting work had already been done, and decision about composition, color, value, and temperature already been made, it made the problem solving involved with each brushstroke much faster. Curious fact: the study was actually bigger than this painting. I realize now that I have not posted most of my fall plein air paintings. I'll try to do better in the next days. In the meanwhile January is almost over and I have only partially caught up with my 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Still working on it, though. : ) Thanks for reading. Blessings to you and your loved ones!

"Love and Peace" 3"x3" acrylic on canvas, with mini easel Sold  A couple of small paintings that I did thinking of the celebration of love for Valentine's Day. All we need is love. : ) "My Heart Is Your Prisoner" 2"x2" acrylic on canvas, with mini easel Sold      

I have been trying to get painterly productive and catch up with the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. So far I have skipped painting on many days in January, but on the days that I was able to do it, I worked on more than one painting. Below are a couple of colorful little paintings that I did at the Cultural Arts Center last Thursday, with the goal of submitting them to the Gift Shop. One sold as soon as I had completed it, thanks to Jean, a fellow artist that saw me painting it and really liked it. "Joyful" 3"x3" acrylic on canvas, with mini easel Sold "Love You to the Poppies and Beyond" 3"x3" acrylic on canvas, with mini easel Sold