About Ben Stockwell.

 

I've been painting in oils for around ten years and have evolved from an abstract painter, via landscapes and portraits, to finally concentrating on painting water and exploring the beauty of the colours and forms created when light passes through or reflects off its surface. 

 

I started by chance when I began to paint from photos accrued over my time diving around Sulawesi (south east Indonesia) researching for my master's degree in marine biology (specialising after my first degree in biological sciences). On returning home to complete my research thesis, I had an abundance of underwater shots of light rays penetrating the surface that were only taken to finish off the film rolls whilst passing the time during diving safety stops at the end of dives. I started painting them out of creative curiosity and to decorate my first flat and was lucky enough to start exhibiting and selling them in a local gallery in Clapham and my career as an artist began!

Photograph by David  O'Shaughnessy.

 

After several explorations copying photos of the water from different depths, to varying levels of detail, I felt that the outcome was much more interesting when distorted and enhanced with a bit of imagination, breaking forms down into the abstract, without losing any of the realism of the water and light interplay. The more feedback I received and reactions I observed from clients and others who saw my paintings, the more I noticed the range of emotive qualities different "looks" of water had on the viewer. By creating a balance between reality and the fantastical qualities of waves, forms, colours and light rays, I am discovering that this "abstract photorealism" and the evocative nature of the subject matter has potential for beauty beyond the aesthetic.

 

 

I work from home in London and paint both private commissions and for various shows and galleries and am always looking for anywhere interesting and exciting to exhibit my work. Earlier this year I had a solo show at Heartbreak Gallery in marylebone and have appeared in several Affordable Art  Fairs in London over the years, appearing in the catalogue representing The Pond Gallery Clapham. I have also had several smaller displays at Spitalfields Art Market and a few other fairs and exhibiton spaces outside London and in the south of France, currently featuring in the last two editions of a coffee-table art book called Galerie Des Arts, represented by the Millet foundation, based there.

 

I am currently featuring in the December, "Radiance" issue of Luxure Magazine. and have also appeared in Wall Street International and The Marylebone Journal.

 

Please feel free to contact me with any queries or commission requests and I will do my best to satisfy!