Ben Darby

Expedition II, acrylic on canvas painting, underwater, green, fish, red, tigers

2019

Dinner Date was conceived during a nature walk along the Balboa Park area of San Diego, specifically underneath a bridge leading to the park. This day, Ben...

"Light Decaying" depicts a winding river through a mountainous terrain, not unlike the many vistas and terrains of Carpenter's adventures into nature. As a painter, I examine how the depiction of light contributes to our experience of paintings. The portrayal of light helps a painting to convey the atmosphere and mood of a scene, and is much of what enables a painting to convey depth and realism. Our perception of lighting features occurs largely through pathways in the brain that carry only black and white information, pathways which are distinct from areas that encode the colors and details we use to delineate specific objects. By painting in grayscale, I try to interact specifically with this region of our visual system, with the hope of conveying some of the spaciousness and emotional significance that light can imbue on scenes. Light, whether as the crisp contrast of a back-lit forest or the gray haze of an industrial landscape, is what defines a scene. Its power to communicate the feel of a place is the principle subject of my paintings. The Blue Azul Collection...

Hane paints a dreamy nocturne - a fusion of earthy and celestial bodies with circling birds around a central vertical axis. Created on assignment for De Beers' highly published A Diamond is Forever" campaign. "A love by the stars was important. Until the right man of the wrong sign put his star on my finger. And I entered his house with my love. The artist created the painting to be the night ... so it appears a little dark in natural light. Best viewed with a top and key light to bring out the colors. For example if you bring the painting outside on a bright day.. the colors will pop. If you view inside of a dark hallway.. it will look sombre with less detail. Again, it's a nocturne. Hane painted the covers of the Collier-Macmillan editions of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia books, as well as such Simon & Schuster publications as Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan and A Separate Reality. In 1963, Hane was hired to do a full-page illustration for Esquire magazine; he moved to New York in 1965. He married Elaine Miller...

Original Oil Painting of Mountain Countryside Scene with Lake, Birds & Cattle in England. Oil on canvas, signed. Art measures 16 x 20 inches Frame measures 21 x 25 inches Spence...