Skip to content
susanbensonart
  • Home
  • PortfolioExpand
    • Paintings
    • PORTRAITS
    • Folding Art Books
    • Mixed media
    • ExhibitionsExpand
      • conflict
      • showcase: summer artcraft 2022
  • Stage Design
  • BiosExpand
    • productions
    • exhibitions
  • about
  • contact me
  • Blog
susanbensonart

Images: Artcraft Showcase Exhibition, Aug 5 – Aug 22, 2022, SALT SPRING ISLAND

August 20, 2022January 25, 2023

Some of the small abstracts I have on a panel – shown in one of the photos that will be posted soon.

Abstract Ink 2
Abstract Ink 3
Abstract Ink 4
Abstract Ink 5

The Tempest” is one of my favourite plays and I wanted to explore this and a number of Shakespeare’s other plays from a painter’s point of view. His people could be from the present and not just characters from a play written centuries ago. Lines in the play are very pertinent to our current lives and are also an inspiration for visual elements.  “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep” give rise to the dream/nightmare drawings — storms, goddesses, witches, and sinking galleons — which are only revealed when the pages in “The Tempest” book are turned.

The exhibition includes charcoal drawings juxtaposed with the abstractions seen in both the panels and the books. My process for much of the work begins with “floating” inks in water and then exploring the organic shapes that are created.  The shapes inspire thoughts and ideas which link to the themes of the play and which I then develop in the books and paintings.  In the case of “The Tempest” the colours and shapes that emerged with the ink suggested the tropical and strange world of the Bermudas to which Shakespeare refers in the play.

The paintings, drawings and books are mixed media using inks, charcoal and watercolour.

Post navigation

Previous Previous
At the Pendulum Gallery in Vancouver
NextContinue
SSNAP, OCTOGONY Sept. 24 – Oct 2nd, 2022
Portrait of an Island, Catalogue of the Exhibition
Portrait of an Island

Mahon Hall, Salt Spring Island, March 30 - April 8, 2018

Available at Amazon.ca

Susan Benson: Art, Design and Craft on Stage, by Patricia Flood

"A look at the work and career of Susan Benson whose work has been seen on some of the world’s most influential stages but is most identified with the Stratford Festival."

Available at Amazon.ca.

latest posts
  • "We are such stuff as..."
    Showcase: Summer Artcraft 2022, SALT SPRING Arts CouncilFebruary 3, 2023
  • Arts Council Spring Show 2022, Mahon Hall, SALT SPRING ISLANDFebruary 2, 2023
  • OCTOGONY, Mahon Hall, SSI, Sept 25th - Oct 4th, 2020 - Susan Benson
    SSNAP, OCTOGONY Sept. 24 – Oct 2nd, 2022January 30, 2023

© 2023 susanbensonart

  • Home
  • Portfolio
    • Paintings
    • PORTRAITS
    • Folding Art Books
    • Mixed media
    • Exhibitions
      • conflict
      • showcase: summer artcraft 2022
  • Stage Design
  • Bios
    • productions
    • exhibitions
  • about
  • contact me
  • Blog