'I regard myself as a traditionalist, believing that learning to see and drawing are the necessary foundations from which work of quality and integrity, however diverse (representational through to abstract) can evolve'
Ben grew up on the South Coast of England, enjoying a
childhood against the backdrop of the New Forest and
Dorset coastline. The sea and the forest remain constants
throughout his work.
He attained his degree in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in London
reacting to and interpreting the play of light and colour in the ever-changing cityscape he lived in. Returning to Dorset, he continued to paint his surrounding environment, exhibiting internationally.
Throughout his work, regardless of subject matter, he is preoccupied with simple picture making concerns. Colour relationships, composition, form and particularly the capture of light and contrast, all play a part, to one extent or another, in his expressive representations.
Creating pieces in a wide variety of media, he is happiest working from life in his still lives, landscapes and portraits. Acrylics, with their quick drying times, have become the medium in which most of Ben's work is now executed as they allow a reaction to a subject to be recorded with an immediacy that he has found neither oils nor watercolours can facilitate.