Doubt & Revelation

By Ben Crawford

$2,600

ARTIST STATEMENT

"Very rarely will I make a painting without a figure or two lurking in the composition somewhere. When I look at landscapes it’s with the figure in mind: the relationship between the setting and the people occupying that space. I think it’s because the way we experience the world is always so subjective and influenced by our own human perception, so that even when we visit a truly wild, untouched place, our very being there has altered how that landscape is read.

In turn, the physical world we observe makes changes in us. I like that tension that arises in the unspoken conversation between the figure and the stage set by the land we inhabit.

In these two paintings I was interested in following the narrative from one picture to another. In both scenes there is a man diving into a body of water, but I chose to only include an audience in the bigger composition. Still, those observers are felt in the smaller painting, existing beyond the edges of the canvas. Or perhaps we feel their presence as we too have now become spectators of this event, becoming figures in the painting by proxy."

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.