Gary Benfield
The incredibly talented and enduringly popular contemporary figurative and wildlife artist, Gary Benfield would really need to bend his mind so as to recall a time back in the depths of his conscious whereby he didn’t physically long to draw. Or simply, draw. For as long as he cares to remember, Benfield has practised, forged, evolved and developed his art, a process which began when he was a child when his memory is really put to the test. What’s more, when Benfield does put his mind to it he recounts learning to use both of his hands when approaching and implementing his drawing and painting during those early years, an ambidextrous talent which he’s nurtured ever since and one which serves him well to this very day.
Quick to stress how he loves the beauty of the natural line, Benfield champions the rudimentary so as to create and transform inert materials into what he aims to be imagery comprising beauty and romance. And it’s hard to argue against the fact that this is precisely what his signature compositional work ultimately achieves. There’s also no escaping Benfield’s fascination with the very business of life itself, on a personal and more intimate level and understanding. Speaking on the subject closest to his creative heart as he approaches his visual work, Benfield states; “We fall in love, have children and experience a whole gamut of emotions as humans always have. We have always sought to express these fundamental experiences in an aesthetic manner, through painting and poetry”.
It’s these fundamental beliefs that our existence and experience is such a constant, that historical variation can do little to alter it, yet through his own art it’s how Benfield readily and perpetually manipulates and transforms the materials he has at his disposal – such as paint, graphite and charcoal in the main - that thus envisages the true aesthetic dimension which remains his clear goal. To Benfield’s mind and setting the ethos to which he’s strongly adhered over the years, the purpose of painting is to surprise and delight the spectator according to the critically acclaimed contemporary figurative and wildlife artist and skilled draughtsman himself. It’s courtesy of this illustrative dedication and single-mindedness that allows the otherwise prosaic perspective of the world to be challenged and changed for the better.
Born and bred in the West Midlands, Benfield went on to study art after completing his secondary education, first attending Stourbridge College of Art in his native Midlands, before heading off to North Wales to further his creative education at Wrexham College of Art. Benfield eventually moved south after bidding farewell to academia, and ended up setting up his own studio near London, where he focused his graphical attentions on the drawing and painting of figures. It didn’t take Benfield long for his work to get noticed within his chosen genre, and just a few years on his growing reputation led to Benfield’s works to become collectable commodities in their own right.
Today Benfield’s work is recognized and admired the world over, regularly staging exhibitions, including both one-man shows and joint displays of his latest portfolio works – at prestigious galleries and appropriate venues far and wide; taking in Europe and America in recent years. In retrospect – and if asked to summarise Benfield’s core illustrative work – then it’s fair to suggest that female figurative and equine wildlife contribute to the largest parts of his enviable back catalogue, yet alongside of these hallmark etchings, Benfield has routinely crafted the stunning likenesses of anything and everything animal-based, from foxes and hares through to assorted livestock and canines in his time.
The award-winning fine artist has few peers who can stand shoulder to shoulder with what he’s achieved, and it’s widely acknowledged that Benfield benefits from an instinctive and natural talent for depicting and interpreting his subject matter, literally as first observed in the field/studio as such. Benfield’s work is also noted as being spontaneous and is reflected by his drawn lines and dashes of colour, none of which is ever improvised. The figures dissolve in and out of their backgrounds and move across the surfaces of his paintings and graphic works, whilst Benfield’s wildlife compositions are populated by frighteningly accurate portrayals of the creatures which grab and harness his focus from the outset, as he succeeds in telling their stories to the engrossed viewer. Which makes it all the more strange to discover that a high percentage of Benfield’s initial works never make it to his adoring public’s gaze, on account of his perfectionistic attitude resulting in a sizeable number of studies being discarded, be they drawings or paintings, and persevering with only those that he considers make the conceptive grade. And anything he believes to be overworked by his exacting standards are shown the door.
Quick to stress how he loves the beauty of the natural line, Benfield champions the rudimentary so as to create and transform inert materials into what he aims to be imagery comprising beauty and romance. And it’s hard to argue against the fact that this is precisely what his signature compositional work ultimately achieves. There’s also no escaping Benfield’s fascination with the very business of life itself, on a personal and more intimate level and understanding. Speaking on the subject closest to his creative heart as he approaches his visual work, Benfield states; “We fall in love, have children and experience a whole gamut of emotions as humans always have. We have always sought to express these fundamental experiences in an aesthetic manner, through painting and poetry”.
It’s these fundamental beliefs that our existence and experience is such a constant, that historical variation can do little to alter it, yet through his own art it’s how Benfield readily and perpetually manipulates and transforms the materials he has at his disposal – such as paint, graphite and charcoal in the main - that thus envisages the true aesthetic dimension which remains his clear goal. To Benfield’s mind and setting the ethos to which he’s strongly adhered over the years, the purpose of painting is to surprise and delight the spectator according to the critically acclaimed contemporary figurative and wildlife artist and skilled draughtsman himself. It’s courtesy of this illustrative dedication and single-mindedness that allows the otherwise prosaic perspective of the world to be challenged and changed for the better.
Born and bred in the West Midlands, Benfield went on to study art after completing his secondary education, first attending Stourbridge College of Art in his native Midlands, before heading off to North Wales to further his creative education at Wrexham College of Art. Benfield eventually moved south after bidding farewell to academia, and ended up setting up his own studio near London, where he focused his graphical attentions on the drawing and painting of figures. It didn’t take Benfield long for his work to get noticed within his chosen genre, and just a few years on his growing reputation led to Benfield’s works to become collectable commodities in their own right.
Today Benfield’s work is recognized and admired the world over, regularly staging exhibitions, including both one-man shows and joint displays of his latest portfolio works – at prestigious galleries and appropriate venues far and wide; taking in Europe and America in recent years. In retrospect – and if asked to summarise Benfield’s core illustrative work – then it’s fair to suggest that female figurative and equine wildlife contribute to the largest parts of his enviable back catalogue, yet alongside of these hallmark etchings, Benfield has routinely crafted the stunning likenesses of anything and everything animal-based, from foxes and hares through to assorted livestock and canines in his time.
The award-winning fine artist has few peers who can stand shoulder to shoulder with what he’s achieved, and it’s widely acknowledged that Benfield benefits from an instinctive and natural talent for depicting and interpreting his subject matter, literally as first observed in the field/studio as such. Benfield’s work is also noted as being spontaneous and is reflected by his drawn lines and dashes of colour, none of which is ever improvised. The figures dissolve in and out of their backgrounds and move across the surfaces of his paintings and graphic works, whilst Benfield’s wildlife compositions are populated by frighteningly accurate portrayals of the creatures which grab and harness his focus from the outset, as he succeeds in telling their stories to the engrossed viewer. Which makes it all the more strange to discover that a high percentage of Benfield’s initial works never make it to his adoring public’s gaze, on account of his perfectionistic attitude resulting in a sizeable number of studies being discarded, be they drawings or paintings, and persevering with only those that he considers make the conceptive grade. And anything he believes to be overworked by his exacting standards are shown the door.