Mary Benke
Oil Paintings | Watercolors | Pastels
The beauty I find in my everyday life always inspires me to create art. And living in northern Colorado, I have no shortage of breathtaking and inspirational landscapes to paint. While working a 20-year career as a magazine editor and graphic designer, I used to devote my free time to my passion: painting. Now, I enjoy turning my family’s adventures and travels into art.
My love for art began in high school and college. While earning degrees in journalism and English at the University of Southern California, I also studied painting and drawing. After “retiring,” I rediscovered fine art through watercolor and pastel classes and workshops.
I enjoy the Colorado outdoors as well as international travel, and find inspiration everywhere. My work includes landscapes inspired by the beauty of Colorado, intriguing scenes and architecture from my travels, flowers and wildlife found in my own backyard, and portraits of people and pets.
I am drawn to the luminosity of watercolor and the vibrant textures of pastel and oil. I also enjoy combining my favorite media and doing collage and mixed media work. The unique use of line and texture is a consistent element throughout my paintings. An ink line adding to the strength and composition of a watercolor…a mixed media piece started with metallic webbing spray and built up with layers of transparent watercolor…outlines of a dark underpainting showing through vibrant strokes of color in a pastel…directional lines accomplished with strong brushstrokes leading the eye through an oil landscape. Although I work in a variety of media, I strive to use these linear and textural undercurrents to produce work that brings meaning to the subject. I hope it resounds with you.
To contact Mary, email marybenke27@gmail.com and/or visit http://marybenke.com.
Selected Art Available at Homestead Fine Art Gallery:
"Mischief Makers" (Oil, 13.75 x 13.75 Framed) -- $400
"Shaggy Smile" (Oil, 13.5 x 13.5 Framed) -- $400
"Winter Glow" (Oil on 7 x 5 wrapped canvas) -- $105
"Last in Line" (Oil on 20 x 10 wrapped canvas) -- $425
"Beneath the Cottonwoods" (Oil, 20.5 x 17.5 Framed) -- $350
"Twin Perspectives" (Oil on Two 8 x 24 wrapped canvases) -- $495
"Clare's Lane - Elderly Lady Walking" (Watercolor)
"Columbine Closeup" (Watercolor)