THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2013
THE
NEWSPAPER.COM
ARTS & LIFE Visual art of Dave Benning
From T-shirts to portraits ‹ from page 15
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As a kid living in the U.K., Benning grew to love the songs of Hendrix, Thin Lizzy, The Beatles – records played by his older siblings – and set about drawing the covers of those LPs. Later, he was schooled in graphic design and found work at a T-shirt company in Burnaby, but grew tired of the job when digital technology robbed him of the creativity he once liked about it. “I wanted to get back into more old-school painting and hands-on work – messy hands and all that,” Benning said. Initially, he tried his hand with watercolours but disliked the results, and found oils too slow-drying. He then discovered acrylic paint and eventually studied twice with Sebastian Kruger, the German artist known for hyper-realism. “He’s the Rolling Stones’ official artist, probably the greatest artist of our time,” Benning said. “I’ve followed his work for years, had all the books and knew everything about him, and then I got to meet him, hang out with him for a week and paint with him 12 hours a day (first in California and later in Germany). “I learned about layering and different
techniques, and that was really my first formal training,” Benning added. “But it’s not like he (Kruger) trains you, he just paints and you watch and get inspired. You’re hanging out in a room with 20 other artists from around the world, and I thought I was good. I realized there that I’m probably the best on my street, because there are a million guys out there who are fantastic.” When not painting in the Rosemary Heights home he shares with his wife and daughter, Benning can be found serving drinks at the WestJet gate bar at YVR. Benning’s larger, most recent works take him dozens of hours to complete, and involve techniques such as looking at the canvas in the mirror and even placing it upside down. “I get a real thrill doing this,” Benning said. “When I’m painting, I’m just in a different world.… I don’t think I have a real noticeable style yet, where someone could look at 10 of my paintings and say, ‘Those are all done by Dave Benning.’ But I’m at the point where every painting I do, I learn something new from it, figure something out. That style is coming – it’s close. That’s my goal, as it is for probably every artist.” tzillich@thenownewspaper.com
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