On view now | Park City, UT

Ben Steele: Colorful Imagination

TROVE Gallery presents the colorful and whimsical paintings of Ben Steele.

When we are children one of the first writing implements that we pick up is a colorful crayon—often scribbling it on paper, across coloring books and sometimes, to the chagrin of parents, walls. These sticks of wax captivate our attention as we can draw out and color in images in a multitude of ways; the opportunities are endless and open up our imaginations. From there, some of us continue down an artistic path and later in life become artists.

For artist Ben Steele the humble art tool has become one of his most constant muses. “Crayons are part of the core, image-wise, of what I’ve been doing for the past 15 years. Generally most of my pieces—like 24 Surreal Colors, with a Magritte crayon box—has the art history or pop culture weaved in and out. Then, Color Circuit, with the crayon lineup is just something I’ve been doing, where I am stripping it back to its simplicity.”"24 Surreal Colors," oil, 50 x 40"

Earlier in his career, when he began studying with David Dornan in Helper, Utah, Steele was encouraged to paint what interested him. He started with the idea of the crayon—an item he has collected over the years, buying many different series on eBay, from the 1920s to present-day—and eventually gave it context by creating his own “coloring books” based on master paintings starting with the Mona Lisa. “It snowballed from there. I remember standing in a line at Walmart one day and saw a Pez dispenser, and I thought of taking a Rembrandt self-portrait and putting it on the Pez,” he says. “[I began incorporating art history references into other scenes], barns, still lifes; there’s no limitation to play with. The crayons though are still the core element of that.”Among his newest pieces is "Color Circuit," oil, 20 x 60"24 Surreal Colors, which is one of the works that combines all of the elements Steele wants to highlight in an ode to French artist René Magritte. The work is surrealist with the crayons floating through the sky, and it references Magritte’s most famous work The Treachery of Images, which depicts a pipe and the phrase, in French, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” or “This is not a pipe.” In Steele’s painting the crayon company is “Not an Art Co.” and the orange crayon says in French, “Ce n’est pas un crayon,” or “This is not a crayon.”