Price Rite Market

Description

For more than a year Albuquerque artist Robert Benjamin romanced New Mexico, seeking out the state's majestic mountains, serene waters, solitary churches, towering bluffs and lyrical light. Traveling more than 8,000 miles across the state in 16 months, Benjamin kept his eye out for the perfect slant of light, the ideal slope of rocky pine-covered mountain, the glassy reflection of a slow moving stream. When inspiration struck, Benjamin took out his camera and snapped several rolls of film, capturing a sunrise on the eastern slope of the stark Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, a sunset casting purple tendrils of shadow on the snow-covered slopes of mountains in Nogal and a gathering storm above the green mountains of Walnut Creek near Socorro. Returning home to his Albuquerque studio, Benjamin pored through the piles of photographs, looking for a scene that he just had to paint using the full, rich palette of pastels. "I was just so impressed with the wide open spaces of New Mexico that I tried to mimic the beauty that God made," says Benjamin. Benjamin is an artist -of-all-trades, wielding a sculpting tool or a printing press as deftly as he does a paintbrush. Whatever medium he turns to, Benjamin expresses an artistic vision that celebrates the innate beauty of the natural world. "I've always felt that if you were an artist worth something, you could work with any media." He says. "You could work with sticks if you wanted to. If I work with oils for a while, I'll get tired of that, and turn to sculpture, or I'll draw or work with acrylics. There is no limit to what I can do." The 2nd oldest of five siblings, Benjamin grew up in Alliance, a steel town in northeastern Ohio. As a young boy, he took to drawing as naturally as most kids take to climbing trees or building forts. "I couldn't see very well as a kid," he explains. "I was nearsighted, so I couldn't play in the creek or do the things that other kids were doing. Instead, I would go inside and draw." Benjamin's mother fostered an interest in art, encouraging him to explore the world through drawing. "It was always a good feeling when I'd make something and my mother would make a fuss over it," he says. "She was part of my strongest motivation." At an early age, Benjamin made himself a solemn promise to become an artist after he watched his father go through the painful process of losing a job. "I remember seeing my Dad come home really sad because he had just lost his job as a steelworker," Benjamin recalled. "I got to thinking 'Man, I really wouldn't want to be that sad or have someone be in control of my life or my destiny like that.' I thought. 'If I were an artist, then I'd never be out of work because I'd always be working for my self, doing what I like to do the most and making a living at it." At age 10, Benjamin produces his first oil painting - an abstract image of a burning castle. While a high school student, he produced graphic designs that earned him awards in state and national commercial contests, including a journalism award for editorial cartooning from Kent State University.

Products & services

Similar companies nearby