These are a couple of paintings from one of my heroes, Thomas Hart Benton, the Missouri-born painter of the last century. I was immediately drawn to the rich colors he used and the complexity of that color. By that I mean, when I look at his colors I see one color but get the feeling of the colors that comprise it. That’s a hard thing to really explain but when I finally understood the concept I found my own work growing stronger and more alive. His colors are always strong and bold, deep and rich.
The first painting also has a great title, The Ballad of the Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley, which is something that means a lot to me and my work. I think that the title can play an important part in the life of a painting.
The other element that I love in Benton’s work is the obvious rhythm ( a term that I use a lot in describing my work) that runs through his paintings
. In the lower piece, Trail Riders, there is a great flow in the landscape from right to left, that to me is pure music. I have seen Benton’s work described as “Jazz painting” which I fully understand. There is a real musical quality in the way his landscapes roll and even in the positioning of his figures.
His use of deep color and rhythm are two things I took and tried to make my own, which is something I think all artists do with their influences. The trick is making it part of your own artistic vocabulary and not merely derivative. I can only hope I’ve done that.
Redtree Times 