Drawing with a double barrel: British figurative artist Gary Benfield straddles the line between drawing and painting with a spontaneous style firmly rooted in illustration - Gary Benfield - Brief Article

Art Business News, July, 2002 by Amy Leibrock

A fly on the wall in Gary Benfield's big, messy, loft studio might find him kneeling over a work in progress, paint brush in one hand, pencil in the other, using both at the same time. The artwork that emerges from his ambidextrous toiling is as dualistic as his process. His figurative pieces hover in a dreamy place somewhere between drawings and paintings.

For Benfield, who has been drawing since he was a child and was trained in graphic design and illustration, it's all about the lines. "I've always been fascinated by many artists who do line drawings," said the 36-year-old artist, citing the Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele as one of his influences. "He draws the simplest line drawings. Some of them are figurative, and some of them are very crude but staggeringly confident and beautiful and sort of disturbing at the same time."

While Benfield's work isn't as dark as Schiele's, his bold, expressive lines filled out with soft washes of color compose a spontaneous, self-assured style. The work he produces today in Oxfordshire, England, where he lives with his wife and two young children, is a relatively recent development in his artistic path. After college, he took the commercial route and worked in London as an advertising illustrator for several years. But the strict deadlines and beef-burger packaging projects of the advertising world weren't suiting his personality. It was a chance meeting with Anthony Stancomb of London Contemporary Art about four years ago that steeled his decision to point his pencils to fine art and figurative subject matter. He's now represented, both in Europe and the United States, by LCA. "If I hadn't met Anthony, I may not have gone down this road," he said.

Most of Benfield's artwork features female figures. "I just think the figure in general, but the female figure especially, is a wonderful form," he said. "It's a really exciting thing to draw." Benfield feels the same affinity for drawing horses. "When you're drawing the leg of a horse, you can see similarities in some of the lovely curves and lines." He also does some still lifes and has recently started drawing buildings.

Loose and Light

The sensual nature of Benfield's work comes, in part, from his spontaneous, gestural process. He starts by loosely brushing a very thin layer of oil on Belgian linen, a fine-tooth, pre-primed canvas. After putting down a rough shape, he blots areas with tissue or scratches into the texture. As shapes develop, he starts drawing into it, never quite knowing how it'll turn out. "The pencil actually almost disappears, and other bits go very dark and heavy," he said. "It's quite nice. It's a little bit like watercolor in a way. You never quite know what's going to happen. Sometimes the nicest things come out of the mistakes."

Benfield uses models only occasionally. Since he works on the floor, looking at a person for reference proves difficult. Mainly, he takes lots of photographs and makes very small sketches as guides. "They look totally different from when I started," he said. "Very often it just comes from whatever shapes happen on the canvas."

As he works, color emerges as it bleeds from the pencils or graphite. He'll mix it with pale washes of oil paint, but avoids getting into a paint process that would require thicker paint and building up layers of glazing. As a result, Benfield's works tend to be monochromatic with well-placed drifts of color or touches of gold leaf. "Occasionally, I'll have a rush of blood and go mad with color," he said. "But invariably not."

Racing Stripes

A lack of color in his artwork doesn't mean his life is monochrome as well. A competitive cyclist, Benfield knows how to live on the edge and has spent enough time in hospitals to prove it. In fact, he credits his ambidexterity to all the broken arms he'd suffered as a child and onward. "If you'd broken your arm as many times as me, I think you'd learn very quickly how to do that," he said. Now that he s found his place in the art world, he's slowed down on the racing to avoid further injuries.

Now he just tries to keep producing new work at a good pace. He averages 10 originals per month, sometimes doing two in one day and sometimes struggling through the process. He throws away much of his work, keeping only the pieces that satisfy his high standards.

When he looks back through the ones he does keep, they bring back the mood he was feeling at the moment. "If I'm having a bit of a dark mood, which I do occasionally, I tend to draw quite stark, very linear drawings without much color," he said. "Then other times, if I'm having a good time with the kids and the family, they tend to reflect that. The faces get much softer."

Whether Benfield's drawings and paintings come from a dark mood, a happy mood, the right hand or the left, they end full of sensual energy and graceful lines. "I'm a but mixed up, you could say," he joked. "My wife would say that would fit my personality down to the ground."

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