Robie Benve Art

OMG, MY PAINTING IS ON A MURAL IN THE SHORT NORTH!! This year, I have been blessed with my art on a billboard and now on a mural. Wow! My excitement might be slightly visible in the photo below... You know those times when you see other people accomplish something and you think, yeah, but they are amazing, I'm not even hoping for that. I'll do my own little thing. And then BOOM! it happens to you? Exactly. Wow. I'm enjoying every moment, don't wake me up yet, please. I'm very exited to that one of my paintings has been made into a mural in the Short North Arts District in Columbus, OH. The Colosseum Installed at 685 N. High St. on the South side of ROOH restaurant, facing Chase Bank. The Colosseum Mixed Media on wood panel 12"x12" Sold Thanks so much to the Marcia Evans Gallery for submitting my painting for the mural! And thanks to the Short North Arts District for sponsoring this wonderful program. This year is the seventh edition of the Short North Temp...

I like to have several pieces at different stages of completeness  and switch from one to another according to the inspiration of the moment.  My Home Studio Has Always A Lot Going On I took this picture a couple of weeks ago, while I was assessing 17 pieces that were all at different stages of done. I like to work on several pieces at the same time. It allows me to switch to a different painting any time I get stuck or my attention span is gone, and I need a break. Believe it or not, changing the painting on the easel feels like a break.  It gets my brain to rewire, start fresh. Placing a new image in front of me presents a new set of problems to solve and decisions to make. What would look good? What would enhance this picture? What colors should I mix and where and how can I apply them? How can I use my stencils in a way that is unpredictable and makes sense at the same time? Usually I have 3-4 pieces that are work-in-progress, but lately I have started many paintings,...

Happy me in front of the ArtPop Street Gallery billboard featuring my painting "It'll Be Grand". Oh my, there are times when you hope for things, you want them very hard, and everything goes wrong. But there are other times when you think "that sounds interesting, I'll give it a try" and you get the the best results.  The first time I applied for the ArtPop Street Gallery Columbus, in 2019, I thought I had a strong piece, but did not get selected. It was a little disappointing. So, this year I applied again. Even if I had very low expectations, I tried to do it right. I chose a piece I really liked, I cropped it just right, and I made sure I followed all the technical requirements of the online submission.  Then I moved on and kind of forgot about it for several weeks. The Advantages of Submitting for a Juried Art Competition I think submitting for any juried competition is a win-win, especially when, like in this case, there is no submission fee. It takes a...

"Music for My Heart" 10"x10" paper, fibers, marker, water-soluble pastel, and acrylic on wood panel. See it on my website I love to use music and patterned paper in the starting layers of a painting and then use transparent paints in the areas where I want to keep them visible until the end. Music for My Heart has music paper and starred paper still showing through. I also used yellow tissue paper to create the yellow circles, and I love the energy they emanate. It was a fun project. I love the process of observing where I am in the different stages and add things as they seem needed. I also enjoyed the challenge of balancing the abstraction of the piece with the realism of the heart drawing. Blessings to you, thanks for reading. May your heat be always strong and pure.

"Circle of Life" 10"x10" paper, fibers, markers and acrylic on wood. Available on my website During the making of “Circle of Life” I experimented with intuitive painting and mixed media.  There are lots of layers of paper, fibers, markers, and acrylic paint. As I worked on it, it kept changing. Sometimes, I fall in love with some details in the early stages, and it's hard to let them go and cover them up with the next layers. The great thing is that, even when a layer is covered up, it served by informing the process, and some parts of it might still be visible at the end, contributing to the overall look of a piece. April 2020, what a time in our lives! To all that are stuck at home waiting anxiously for the end of the social isolation, I wish you good health, love, and peace.  I hope you get many opportunities to enjoy the little things.  Some aspects of what we are experiencing now will make us better people, we might even miss parts of th...

Here is another version of the 4-leaf-clover from the last post. "Lucky" 6"x 6" Paper and Acrylic on panel See on my website I started this one with way more paper than the previous, and at times it was hard to cover the starting ground with extra layers because I really liked some parts of how it looks in the beginning stages. First, I used some red tissue paper, and then I covered that with some fibrous green paper that I got from the art store. Then, I cut shapes out of another special paper (that I bought from the art store as well) all along using soft acrylic gel medium as gluing agent. After this, it was layers upon layers of acrylic paint, trying to keep it transparent in some places, so that you could still see what was underneath. A fun challenge!

Two things happened today in my world. 1. I started a Corona Art Challenge with a weekly theme, and this week the theme is GREEN. 2. I painted a small, very green painting. Not bad for a quiet day indoors, uh? A Wish of Love and Good Luck Paper and acrylic on panel 6"x6" SOLD Now, the people that know me, are aware of my unbelievable luck at finding four-leaf-clovers. Yep, I'm one of those people that just look down and see one. Some people, like my children (lol), are very bothered by that. I guess my eyes easily catch the different pattern of the four leaves compared to the sea of three leavers. Fact is I don't need to loook hard, most times I glance down and see one. This drives my family crazy, because they can't find it even after I say there is one. lol Anyway, this particular one was on the edge of the street at last year's Columbus Arts Festival. It had just finished raining, and I was walking home when I saw it. I took a photo an...