‘Hummingbird 1’
A3 Watercolour Painting
‘Hummingbird’
My wings are spread,
But the wind knocks me down,
I’m struggling to fly,
Fear pulls me down,
Philosophy and poetry,
Examine me,
So emotionally,
Who was it,
I used to be?
Who was it,
You used to see?
Who is it,
That you say is me?
Why can't I see,
That version of me?
The one everyone else can see?
I try to change the things in me,
Which I feel are wrong or damaged in me,
But what if all those parts of me…
Make me…
Me,
All of me,
The honest,
True,
Real version of me?
If I kept it all?
All those parts of me?
The broken parts of me?
The – not working so good – parts of me?
The true, honest, raw, bruised version of me?
And I learned to accept all of me?
To appreciate all of me?
To love all of me…
Would I soar through the colourful skies again?
Would I fly high in the notion,
Of colourful love and creative devotion?
Eleni NeoBenyon
2021
VAO Uk & International Emerging Artist Award 2021
Competition submissions:
‘Magnificent Elephants-No.2-with 24 ct Gold Leaf’
30 x 24 inches
Oil on Canvas with 24 ct Gold Leaf
My intention with this piece was to create not only something visually beautiful and appealing to the audience, but something which would also grab their attention and draw them into the painting for a closer look. I wanted to express the strength, majestic beauty and vulnerability of this critically endangered species. I developed a unique wet on wet style using oil paint to create streaks of hazy, merging, vibrant colours and added details of 24 ct gold leaf.
‘David Bowie-Drip Portrait’
30 x 24 inches
Oil on Canvas
This piece was created using oil paint and refined linseed oil to create the ‘drip’ finish. It’s the first human portrait painting I’ve ever done, using the album cover ‘Aladdin Sane’ as my reference. I wanted to create a contemporary feel to the image as well as keeping to my own unique style. I’m fascinated with colour and texture, and creating expressive, fantastical backgrounds with depth and details to draw the audience in for a closer inspection of the surface textures and qualities created. I hope to achieve a contemporary expressionist style of portrait, yet still for the subject, in this case David Bowie, to be easily recognisable and the first impact to achieve an emotive reaction from the viewer
I am a 34 year old, female British Born Greek Cypriot, currently based in Warrington after moving here at the end of 2019.
I completed a Degree with Honours, in Fine Art in 2009, at The University of Chester. However, coming from a family with a catering background and having worked in catering since I helped in the family business and then part time while I was studying in college and for my degree, I continued to work my way up in the catering business, eventually becoming head chef and even setting up my own mobile catering business. Which I later sold as an established business ‘CHEF-IN-A-BOX’ (although it’s unfortunately not kept the name!).
Although I have always loved art since a very young age, with cheffing such a demanding role, my art career only began when I left catering in my early 30’s, stemming from a purely private therapy which helped me through difficult times in my life, due to long term health conditions Hemicrania Continua and Fibromyalgia.
After much persuasion from friends and family I finally ‘put it out there’ around September of 2019 and so far I have been overwhelmed by how well it has been received. I’ve truly found my passion, my outlet and therapy. Art gives me immense joy and purpose.
I believe I have now developed my own recognisable style, I love animals and nature, so they are predominately, but not solely, the subject my work (elephants, giraffes, hummingbirds, ducks, cats, dogs, flowers etc). I adore intense, vibrant colours and love to create majestic, fantastical environments for the subjects of the pieces to morph in and out, pop out or disappear into.
‘Magenta blossom - 24 ct gold leaf’
40cm x 40cm
2020
Oil on canvas with 24 ct gold leaf
This piece is one of the first oil paintings which I would consider, now, to be in my recognisable style of painting. I have developed this unique style over the last few years as I had never worked with oils before 2019 and found myself obsessed with mastering my own individual technique with the notoriously tricky medium.
During my research I fell in love with and was heavily influenced by the incredible works of British artist Katy Jade Dobson, also, although the complete antithesis the master that is Mr Bob Ross taught me a great deal in terms of techniques using oil paints, and finally my ultimate inspiration from childhood, (after seeing his seascapes in Galleries, I was genuinely blown away) J.M. William Turner, I have been influenced by his work ever since I first saw one. The use of colours, the emotions, expressiveness within his work, the movement, the ambiguous forms of ships and trains and clouds and smoke. You just get lost within the realms and depths of the paintings, that is what I aspire towards. I believe this piece shows the turning point for my painting technique. From this painting on, I show my own unique, contemporary expressionist style of intense, vibrant colours, majestic or fantastical backgrounds, vibrant colour pallets blurred together, merging but still intense and eye catching drawing the viewer into the depths and the details within the paintings.
By 2021 I have now regularly exhibited and sold artwork at local Art Galleries including Technically Brilliant Art Gallery and Chris Beesley’s Studio Gallery in Warrington. I have now sold work locally and around all around the country including Scotland, London, and Harrogate. Then in March 2021 I had my first international sale with
‘The Disappearing Herd - 7 - with gold leaf’
(30inch x 24inch/76cm x 61cm)
Oil on canvas with 24 ct gold leaf,
going to it’s new home to L.A. in America!
I have just entered two paintings into the VAO – Visual Art Open - UK & International Emerging Artist Award 2021.
‘David Bowie - Drip Portrait’
(30inch x 24inch/76cm x 61cm)
Oil on canvas
And
‘The Magnificent Elephant – No 2-with gold leaf’
(30inch x 24inch/76cm x 61cm)
Oil on canvas with 24ct Gold Leaf
Vulnerable to extinction (VE)
Additionally, I have an upcoming exhibition with
‘Pensive Western Gorilla’
Oil on canvas
(H60cm x W40cm)
Western Gorilla Classification - Critically Endangered (CR)
being exhibited in The Virtual Artists Exhibition – ‘Summer Arts Festival’
12th -26th June 2021
Which, ‘right now is THE ONLY fully immersive and interactive virtual art gallery in the world. We work in partnership with Robots of London, which is the leading company in Europe specialising in Virtual Reality and robotics.’
I chose to enter this piece as it is a perfect representation of my style of painting as a whole. It contains my most distinctive stylistic elements - the focal point of the piece – the ‘Pensive Western Gorilla’ with its attention to detail shows the element of realism which is often incorporated within my work, as well as its prevalence in itself as a favourite subject matter of mine, animals are more often that not in some way featured within my paintings. The background, in terms of its intense, vibrant multicoloured pallet which the gorilla is disappearing into, forms the majestic hazy depths to his colourful jungle. This use of vibrant colours and the creation of the majestic, hazy depths of the background, with the subject disappearing into/out of, popping out of, is an atmosphere I aim to create in the majority of my work.
Among a wide range of artwork I have created a small collection called ‘Our Endangered World’. Which this piece is from. As an animal lover and artist I found myself embarking on a journey, in which it was my mission to not only attempt to create beautiful artwork but to capture the majestic beauty of animals who live among us in this ever changing world.
Furthermore, the desire I had was not only to capture their beauty but also their vulnerability, as well as their strength. I had hoped to create some awareness through my artwork, of some of the incredible animals we share this world with, who are classified as vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered. I felt a sense of responsibility to raise awareness and remind people of the beauty of our animals, before any more of them become extinct from the world we know and continue to destroy.
I create Oil Paintings, Watercolour Paintings, Acrylic Paintings, some photography, digital editing and some mixed media paintings.
I also take on commissioned work and from September 2019 to date, I have created 16 Commissioned pieces in total. At the moment (April 2021) I am also working on a further 3 commissions (two are just drying and awaiting their varnishes and one still to complete).
In addition to that I’m designing a business logo for an independent food business at the moment (A Taste of Home) and have another logo design client whose logo I will begin as soon as I have finished this one.
It is such a unique experience, and a privilege to be trusted with extracting a thought from someone’s mind, creating it in a physical form in this reality and then presenting it back to them-Incredible when you really think about it!
My next challenge is to develop my ‘Fantasy Land’ watercolour series onto large scale canvases using alcohol inks. I endeavour to incorporate different sub-themes within the series including;
‘Hummingbirds’
‘Elephants’
‘Giraffes’
‘Floral’
‘Underwater’
And potentially many more as I explore the project.
…watch this space!
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