Ben Steele likes crayons. His mentor and friend, David Dornan, told him, among many other things, “Paint things you like.” “I like crayons,” he realized, “and they’re colorful. Nearly everybody did art as a kid and they relate to crayons and mark making. So I did still lifes of crayons.”
The Hartland, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.
His still lifes of crayons appear in monumental boxes on canvases that are sometime 6 by 4 feet. “Anything over about 5 by 5 feet becomes awkward to move around,” he admits. The crayon boxes take on references to other artists from art history and, often, the cities where they would be first exhibited. A box of “Isabella Stewart Gardner Drawing Crayons” dwarfs John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo at the Gardner Museum in Boston.
Majestic Colors with a box of “Dixon Western Crayons: Cloud World Art Co.” looms in front of Maynard Dixon’s Cloud World, painted for his exhibition at Altamira Fine Art in Scottsdale, Arizona. Art Distilledopens January 28 and continues through February 8.
Majestic Colors, oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in.
Continuing the Arizona theme and referring to the title of the exhibition, Distilled Arizona depicts three liquor bottles with labels relating to Western movies. The color moves from a warm red whiskey on the left to a cool label on a bottle of Scotch on the right. In the middle of the composition is a bottle of “Tombstone Tequila” with its stopper partially removed.
The themes for his exhibitions and the development of his paintings (he has several paintings going at once) are developed with his wife Melanie. “We brainstorm together,” he explains. “She can come down to the studio and see things fresh and has an immediate response.”
Distilled in Arizona, oil on canvas, 40 x 60 in.
Steele had gone to Helper, Utah, to take several workshops with Dornan. Both now live in Helper. Dornan suggested having a mirror in the studio 20 feet back from the easel. When Steele turns his head he sees his painting in the mirror, in effect, 40 feet away and reversed. “You get objectivity,” he explains.
When asked which artists of the past he admires, he replied with two surprisingly different people, Vermeer and Warhol. “Of all the realist painters of the time, Vermeer had a great combination of precision and soft focus. Warhol simplified things to a genius level. He understood something. He distilled down to an essence that really hit at the right time.”
Wild Horse Glue, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in.
Golfing last fall with the eldest of his and Melanie’s three boys, he was reminded of having initially pursued a career as a professional golfer, until he realized he didn’t have the right stuff. The experience helped in his art career, however. “I understand the improvement process, and I could identify the people who could help me get there. I had good coaches.”
Altamira Fine Art 7038 E. Main Street » Scottsdale, AZ 85251 » (480) 949-1256 » www.altamiraart.com
Powered by Froala Editor
