Oliver Hazard Benson Figurative Paintings

This painting, like each of the paintings in the Purple Dawn series, is based on an earlier work that was lost or destroyed in the course of time. Feeling that I wanted to finish wha...

Oliver Hazard Benson Totemic Arhat acrylic on panel 9h x 7w in 22.86h x 17.78w cm OB0111 Oliver Hazard’s paintings are produced directly from his imagination and deals with a mixtur...

Oliver Hazard’s paintings are produced directly from his imagination and deals with a mixture of imagery he has witnessed in his travels, dreams, and read about in literature. The ar...

As is generally the case with my paintings, this work proceeded from a place of unknowing. The specificity of imagery and technique belie the non-specific character of the ideas and narratives presented. The imagery is not tied to any pre-existent source (textual or other). It is not preconceived by the artist, rather it is produced spontaneously in the process of painting. That said, it seems both easy and sensible to connect the imagery in this painting to common cultural material, especially that from very ancient sources. The central figure is very much like a totemic Neolithic goddess- the sort of which seem to be among the most ancient artistic works, examples are extant from eras stretching back tens of thousands of years. A lot has been written about figures of that kind but of course no one can reasonably claim to truly understand them. Here the great goddess appears with wings and entwined serpents. Crowned also with a glowing orb she has become an emblem of a matristic hermetica. The smaller figure may be less evidently archetypical. She is a younger goddess, a daughter like Persephone to Demeter. She lifts the breasts of her mother signifying perhaps how the presence of the child evokes the nurturing qualities of the mother or how Persephone’s seasonal ascent from the underworld awakens in her mother the impulse to again give life to the world. The cluster of gynomorphic figures contained by the crescent moon at the center of the painting refer to the balanced transformations of the lunar cycle and their mysteriously harmonic physical manifestation in the vital cycles of a woman’s body. At their axis is the cycloptical abdomen of the figure enthroned on the moon. The entire totem rises from a terrestrial gateway into an open landscape. In the background megaliths obscure the horizon. They represent a first boundary in time- the beginning of history. Below is the gateway, the opening to an inner earth...

Ganesh at the Maelstrom This painting is based on one of my first attempts at complex composition. When I was 19 years old I spent some months painting a house that contained a larg...

This is a version of the Renaissance motif known as "Death and the Maiden". I think the motif generally was meant to condemn Voluptus (born of the...

Oliver Hazard Benson Dagon Colapesce acrylic on panel 11h x 14w in 27.94h x 35.56w cm OB0106 Oliver Hazard’s paintings are produced directly from his imagination and deals with a mi...

Nereid is a sea nymph, a female spirit of sea waters. She symbolizes everything that is beautiful and kind about the sea. Her melodious voice sing as she dances and twists on a sea ...

Oliver Hazard Benson Danubia acrylic on panel 10h x 8w in 25.40h x 20.32w cm OB0107 Oliver Hazard’s paintings are produced directly from his imagination and deals with a mixture of ...

The painting is based on the sketch I made for a friend who in the early 90's wrote an account of his years as an occultist in Berkely, CA during the 1970's and 80's. He apprenticed himself to a charismatic magician. The latter believed himself to be both the returned Christ and the magical child (incarnated spell) of the infamous Alestair Crowley. This magician took on the form of Mickey Mouse in order to carry out his ministry, the ultimate goal of which was to be crowned at the Vatican. In time the apprentice became roused to individuate from his master and took the Satanic role in the form of Donald Duck (the avian predator of mice: Horus the Avenger...

The figure in this painting is like the popular but at the same time oddly obscure Taoist god called “Longevity Star”. Apparently he was an historical figure born bald and grey like ...

Oberon is historically known as a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. Here he is pictured aloft, floating in space, with elongated arms and legs that twist i...