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Inspiration from Artists Week 23: Tim Benson and Kelvin Okafor.
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Message
Posted
Welcome to this weeks featured artists Tim Benson and Kelvin Okafor .
Alan will introduce use to the artwork of his chosen artist Tim Benson and on Wednesday lunch time Gillian will introduce her chosen artist Kelvin Okafor.
Have a good week , I hope you enjoy the two artists and their artwork.
Posted
Tim Benson PROI NEAC b-1978
As a practised figurative artist, Tim regularly invites sitters to his studio and also travels to the subjects' own environments to paint individuals in their own private settings. He not only creates a distinguishable likeness of his subject, but attempts to evoke something of the sitter’s character, something that stands out for me when studying his expressive portraits.
He doesn’t use grids or ipads, but plunges straight in with a large loaded brush, preferring to use just one brush generally… now that certainly prevents any fiddling!
As you can see from his images, there’s very little blending going on, and definitely no detail, more bold confident stokes with a loaded brush, balancing warm against cool and so on - wonderful stuff in my opinion. Others will no doubt prefer a less ‘painterly’ approach, but for me, this is the epitome of what painting should be about… expressive and with passion!
That doesn’t mean I don’t like or appreciate other styles of drawing/portrait painting.
Tim is also an accomplished landscape painter, but I’ve concentrated on showcasing his portraits today.
He’s a very successful artist and has held numerous exhibitions in London galleries. Obviously you could liken him to a modern version of Lucian Freud, well he’s in good company there then!
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by Alan Bickley
Posted
Fantastic artist Alan. I am familiar with his portraits from the Mall Galleries in London which I visited regularly pre pandemic. I really like his bold gritty style which has great depth and achieves a really 3D effect. The hair on your middle choice is amazing!
I have chosen some portraits of Zambian cataract patients from his series of paintings at Orbis the eye charity.
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by Tessa Gwynne
Posted
There is no denying his skill , I would not know where to start on a portrait like these but I don’t do portraits anyway.
I like and admire his work as Alan pointed out it’s his work is painterly and I’m a bit more conventional when it comes to portraits. Unfortunately I’m not over keen on the major of his landscapes though some do look good , a bit to loose for my taste there are some very nice ones . Two landscapes and a seascape that I do like .
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Posted
A very interesting artist - the portraits are brilliant, and a world away from the very careful, scientifically plotted, painstakingly grilled and measured work of some whom we could all mention: he's nearer to Lucian Freud than to Pietro Annigoni, that's for sure - of course, he's less likely to appeal to admirers of the latter; although - all of those artists appeal to me, for very different reasons. Without committing too much by way of heresy, I find his palette livelier than Freud's, though his paint handling is similar: and I bet he uses a lead white - it would be very interesting to hear if he does (Alan? Any idea?).
He sculpts the paint with his brush - probably, that's one of the reasons why Michael finds the landscapes oppressive, because the paint isn't only thick, but (at least in some of the above) heavy: this is the method Constable used in his preparatory works - thick paint, vigorously applied, very little blending. That method can lead to a certain darkness and menace - which I like, but isn't always an approach which yields up the more ethereal, atmospheric elements of landscape painting. It works well in the first two paintings posted by Paul (that is, the first two landscapes) but the last one, posted by Jenny, is just that bit too much for my taste - I'm not sure it hangs together as well as it could; and I'm all for a limited palette, but maybe not quite so limited as that.
I must learn more about this painter - and the fact that I want to suggests he has a lot to offer in return for a wider study.
Posted
Another fascinating artist. Great admiration for his portraits. Less so for the landscapes. Think I'm with Michael on this. As for the portraiture, the ability to paint this way is astonishing. Often I'm attracted to work simply by the fact that I know I could never emulate it in a month of Sundays...make that a year of Sundays. It's the variety in art that makes it so appealing.