Robie Benve Art

This is a better photo of my latest plein air painting, done at a local farm. The last post did not have the final painting, only work in progress shots. "I'll Be Bright With You" 9"x12" Oil on linen panel $250 I found this lovely view at the OSU farm, it’s very close to my house, yet I had never thought to paint there before, I wasn’t sure it was allowed, but they were super friendly and excited about the idea of an artist painting the farm.  I ended up going back a couple of times to finish the painting. The second day the sunflower heads were already drooping down, but I have the shapes already in place, so it was easy to keep going.

"Red Glow" 9"x12" Mixed Media on canvas SOLD Here is another mixed media painting that started from a very random underpainting, full of colors and textures, and then I decided to turn it into a bright sunset on a rocky shore. I created the ground texture with paper of different kinds, including paper doilies, and with peelings from the dry palette. I painted over with acrylic paint, using various brushes and some home-made stencils for interesting patterns. I really like how it turned out. It makes me smile. :)

Last week an artist friend saw my latest paintings and told me that the colors reminded him of Wolf Kahn's work. Uh? Honestly I had no idea of how his work looked like, so I googled it and... I loved his colors and the simple shapes in the composition. Here is a small painting inspired by what I saw. "Standing Tall" 6"x6" Mixed Media on canvas $40 Thanks for stopping by.

Here is a colorful abstract painting that took several days to finish, mainly due to the size and the many layers of paint, paper, fibers, stencils, etc. setting my 30 paintings in 30 days on a slow mode. "Sunbright" 24"x24" Mixed media on canvas SOLD Below are some images showing the Step-by-Step of the initial stages, with a super random abstract design that I used as starting point. Stage 1 Random abstract shapes I still had no idea of what the painting would become. I was just trying to create some interesting patterns. Stage 2 I decided I wanted to make it a landscape with trees and a stream. I start drawing the main lines of the landscapes, that at this point may seem to add confusion, but they make sense to me. Stage 3 I get out my custom made stencils and start adding patterns for the leaves, the water, and the grass. Can you see them? It's still confusing... Some detail shots. I used thread from an old fabr...

"City Hub" 9"x12" Mixed media on canvas Framed $225 Available at Marcia Evans Gallery 8 E Lincoln St, Columbus, OH 43215 Guess what? Another mixed media study of the Short North, in Columbus, OH. Experimenting with acrylic paint, fabric, paper, thread, and custom made stencils. The fun continues. It may seem that I'm going in a totally different direction, but it's still me, just having fun and exploring. :) Thanks for looking.

On Saturday, I attended a mixed media demo with the talented and creative Susan Rossiter.  Six lucky attendees gor the opportunity to experiment with a stretched canvas and lots of top notch art supplies. She showed us the way, and then let us get super creative. I came home with a very colorful and textural abstract painting, and I worked a little bit on it in my studio because, being me, I wanted to "see something" in it. So I turned it into a path in the woods, with the light Shining Through . Shining Through Mixed Media on stretched canvas 8"x8" SOLD Susan had all kinds of acrylic paint, brands Golden and Liquitex.  Heavy body, fluid, spray, acrylic ink, gel medium, cracking paste, and who knows what else. I only used a few things and I was already full of wows. She also had all kinds of paper, embroidery thread, and other things to create textures and patterns, like paper doilies. One think that I did not use were her beautiful stencils and the s...

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.