Benjamin Rogers Paintings: Inside the Painter's Studio Part II

Upon further review I noticed that I didn’t explain things that I was thinking about or any of my goals in my previous post about this work. I took this photograph for this work shortly after finishing graduate school at Arizona State University. Upon the completion of the two works “the Hunger Artist” and “The Past has its Place” I had a vision for how I would arrange my compositions and the manner in which the space would interact with the figure. This was the first painting I made after receiving my MFA in painting, so I wanted to make a statement about my work and my experience, as well as a comment about the artistic process in general.

I asked several of my friends and two of the teachers I studied closely with to join me in my studio to be a part of a painting. It took only a few moments to get the photographs that I needed to mix together to create my painting. As you can see in the images below part of my process is to map out the composition, using a grid system to help me determine the best aspect ratio for the painting.

I use the photograph as a drawing reference mainly. After I establish my drawing I approach the painting as an abstract picture plane, thinking about the interplay of colors and values as I organize the rhythm of the marks.

Approaching the surface in this manner means thinking more about artists like Cecily Brown than Gustave Courbet, which is to say, I am trying reference Courbet, not copy him. So if I think of the way Philip Guston’s early paintings were a connected patchwork of abstract marks, then I can see the painting as it needs to be seen, an interaction of colors and marks. The difference is that each mark I make has to work representationally, formally and conceptually. When I look at Cecily Brown’s paintings, they look remarkably similar to the organization of Seurat and Jaquin Sarolla y Bastida, hers are simply less fussy about representation. To illustrate my point I’m including some paintings that may help explain the way that I visualize the surface.

Philip Guston

Cecily Brown

Georges Seurat

Jaquin Sorolla y Bastida

The background contains many of the paintings that I made while in graduate school at ASU (nearly my whole MFA thesis show is exhibited behind the figures) as a way of staking my claim and throwing my hat into the proverbial art ring. I am also making a comment on the artistic process, the solitude of the painter, and how that can mean shutting oneself away from friends and loved ones. It’s about how there are conversations and interactions that the artist will miss in the pursuit of the creative act. It’s about being a part of a community of artists, but having to be apart from that community to actively engage with the conversations held in that community. It’s also about making a mountain of work to finally understand what you kind of work you want to make.

Below are some images of the Gustave Courbet's The Artist's Studio: A Real Allegory of Seven Years in My Artistic and Moral Life, the painting to which I was paying homage.