Search

Ben Crawford

ARTIST STATEMENT

Storytelling is central to Ben Crawford’s practice, with characters and moments from his life often forming the genesis of his paintings.

Although there is a strong autobiographical nature to his work, Ben’s paintings have the feel of a dream or memory that has flickered into his mind, colours heightened and details slightly obscured; a feeling that is both familiar and surreal.

Seeking a sense of universality in his work, Ben uses a mixture of personal photography and found images to create collages that form the springboard for the finished paintings.

From here, he allows the abstract nature of the paint to influence the direction the painting will take, enjoying the way in which the composition, palette and subsequent layers are guided and influenced by the spontaneous marks and colours below.

This process, of allowing the abstract to shape the figurative, reflect the artist’s relationship with nature and acknowledgment of the extent to which his own experiences of life are shaped by the landscape around him.

BIO

Ben Crawford was born in Cork in the south of Ireland in 1983.

Growing up, Ben was fortunate to always have a big garden to play in and later on, a wild coastal landscape to explore. He has no doubt that this exposure at an early stage to the landscape has had an influence on his enduring interest in exploring it in his art practice.

He also credits his love of storytelling and appreciation for colour and pattern to his parents, who provided a nurturing environment where art, music, food and reading was part of everyday life.

After finishing his degree in fine art in 2007, Ben exhibited with a few Irish galleries, including his first solo show in Cork city in 2008.

But it wasn’t until he came to live with his wife’s family in Australia in 2011, that Ben started to pursue art as a feasible career. Initially working from a tiny old food trailer, Ben has slowly developed his painting practice over the past thirteen years, eventually building the studio he currently works from out of an old shipping container.

Since graduating from art college, Ben has exhibited widely in Ireland, the UK and in Australia, and has had work selected for various art prizes.

Artworks

Gatherers (East Of The Garden)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Can A Bird Sing A New Song?
Quick View
Send Enquiry
Southern Point
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Campsite Philosophising
Quick View
Send Enquiry
My Brother's Tree
Quick View
Send Enquiry
Chasing Honk Honk
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Sometimes The Afternoons Were Long (Waiting For You)
Quick View
Send Enquiry
Summer Invocations
Quick View
Send Enquiry
300 Years Went By (Tir Tairngire)
Quick View
Send Enquiry
Net
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Net Sold
I Hear They Set The Peacocks Free
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Brackish Sounds
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Both The Thief And The Treasure
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

The Ceremony
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Discovering The Source
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Listen To The Children’s Song (Know Your Time)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

A Dark Thread That Sows
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Alibis
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Alibis Sold
Restless Inhabitants
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Nowhere I'd Rather Be
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Previous Lives
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Charmer
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Charmer Sold
No Sunrise Finds Us Where Sunset Left Us
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Tips Of Our Tongues
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Forms And Manifestations
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Somewhere There's A King
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

This Time Tomorrow
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Things Left Behind
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Monkey Puzzle Alice
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Where Once We Were Wild
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Lay Your Shadow Down
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Providential Isles
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Startling Murmurations
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

A Movement In Twelve Years (Music Of A Blazing Star)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Tinder Sticks
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Pockets Full Of Strange Currency
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Secrets And Expectations
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Correspondence (The Garden Camp)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

After Navan (The Cave)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Cover Ground
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

A Fever Dream (Laid Bare)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Travelling Lightly
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

You Got Me Singing
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

The Turning Tide
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Back Of Our Hands
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Let's Speak Of Regrets
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

A Shadow For Your Hours
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

This Untrue Island
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Before We Were Outlaws
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

A Different, Distant Life
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

An Accidental Odyssey
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

But Then, The Mysteries Began
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

The Ritual
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

The Ritual Sold
Interrupted Melancholy
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Fool's Gold
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Driftwood
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Driftwood Sold
A Bed Of Thistle Down (Seven Years Sown)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Diamonds And Pearls
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

A Claim And A Treaty
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Seasons Of Plenty
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Strangers And Pilgrims
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

Conversations With Myself (Now And Then)
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

A World On Hold
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

All Was Lost And Found
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available:

I Heard The Word, Wonderful Thing, A Children's Song
Quick View

Notify me when this product is available: