Ben Steele likes crayons. His mentor and friend, fellow artist David Dornan, told him, among many other things, “Paint things you like.” “I like crayons,” he realized, “and they’re colorful. Nearly everybody did art as a kid, and they relate to crayons and mark making. So, I did still lifes of crayons.”
Majestic Colors, oil on canvas, 48 x 72"
His work appears in monumental boxes on canvases that are sometimes 6 by 4 feet. “Anything over about 5 by 5 feet becomes awkward to move around,” he admits. The crayon boxes take on references to other artists from art history and, often, the cities where they would be first exhibited. A box of “Isabella Stewart Gardner Drawing Crayons” dwarfs John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo at the Gardner Museum in Boston.
Painted for his exhibition at Altamira Fine Art in Scottsdale, Arizona, the box of Dixon Western Crayons in Majestic Colors looms in front of a rendition of Maynard Dixon’s Cloud World. Art Distilled, opens January 28 and continues through February 8.
Distilled in Arizona, oil on canvas, 40 x 60"
Continuing the Arizona theme and referencing the title of Steele’s show, Distilled Arizona depicts three bottles of hard liquor with labels relating to Western movies. The color moves from a warm, red whisky on the left to a cool label on a bottle of Scotch on the right. In the middle of the composition is a bottle of Tombstone Tequila with its stopper partially removed.
The Hartland, oil on canvas, 30 x 40"
The themes for his exhibitions and the trajectory of his paintings (he has several paintings going at once) are developed with his wife Melanie. “We brainstorm together,” he explains. “She can come down to the studio and see things fresh and has an immediate response.”
Steele had gone to Helper, Utah, to take several workshops with David Dornan. Both now live in Helper. Dornan suggested having a mirror in the studio 20 feet back from the easel. When Steele turns his head, he sees his painting in the mirror, in effect, 40-feet away and reversed. “You get objectivity,” he explains.
Wild Horse Glue, oil on canvas, 36 x 36"
When asked which artists of the past he admires, he replied with two surprisingly different people: Vermeer and Warhol. “Of all the realist painters of the time, Vermeer had a great combination of precision and soft focus. Warhol simplified things to a genius level. He understood something. He distilled down to an essence that really hit at the right time.”
Golfing last fall with the eldest of his and Melanie’s three boys, he was reminded of having initially pursued a career as a professional golfer—until he realized he didn’t have the right stuff. The experience helped in his art career, however. “I understand the improvement process and I could identify the people who could help me get there. I had good coaches.” —
Altamira Fine Art, 7038 E. Main Street Scottsdale, AZ 85251 • (480) 949-1256 www.altamiraart.com
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