Gary Benfield is one of the most prolific & renowned contemporary artists in the world. The subtle femininity captured with his perfectionist brush appeals to a wide base of collectors & his work is in high demand worldwide. The background of Benfield’s paintings is soft, reminiscent of Leonardo de Vinci’s sketches & sepia tones, most of it defined only with pencil & a slight highlight of color.

Benfield has a natural talent for depicting things as seen. His work is spontaneous and is reflected by his drawn lines and dashes of color. The figures dissolve in and out of their background and move across the paper. He paints rapidly and discards most of his paintings and drawings, keeping only those he feels are perfected in their conception rather than overwork those that he feels are not correct.

For Benfield, the world around him is a continuous sequence of fortuitous events. Objects and figures intertwine in his mind, they dance, they fuse and one adopts the color and life of another. We are drawn into an intimate world of his imagery, where sensuality and delight in life’s form are combined in a flight of frolic and fantasy.

"I cannot remember a time without drawing. It was natural for me as a child to use both my hands when painting and drawing and this ambidexterity has remained with me in my adult life as an artist. I love the beauty of the line and I use these skills to create and transform inert materials into images of beauty and romance.

There are aspects of our lives, our existence and experience which remain as a constant, not subject to historical variation. We fall in love, have children and experience a whole gamut of emotions as people always have. And we have always sought to express these fundamental experiences in an aesthetic manner, through painting and poetry. As an artist it is this imaginative role in transforming materials - paint, graphite, charcoal - to create this aesthetic dimension which I love." Gary Benfield

1965 - Born on December 6th in Birmingham, England.
1982-84 - Attended Stourbridge College of Art
1984-86 - Attended Wrexham College of Art
1986 - Became a professional freelance illustrator. Joined Artist Partners Group.
1987 - Work exhibited at AOI Association
1988 - Best of British Illustration Exhibition
2003 – Exhibited in Washington
2004 – Exhibited in New York, St Petersburg and Moscow
2005 – Exhibited in Toronto and Moscow

“The purpose of painting is to surprise and delight the spectator. In doing so our prosaic view of the world is challenged and changed, for the better. Gary Benfield’s work does this for us, in an apparently effortless way. His skill as a draughtsman compels us to look at the world differently. Multiple perspectives are subtley melded together, views are transformed and transfused with colours, textures and tones. We are manouvered into evocations of space and places which we would dearly like to inhabit, not as fantasy or dream but rather as a very real and beautiful part of this, our waking world.” Michael Dover Robinson BA(Hons) Dip(HD) Slade Scholar.