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spend doing it. But painting is a physical act, not only a process that requires time. You have to drag, poke or pull that brush across the surface. It is different to paint a subject standing up from sitting down. The energy invested is greater if one stands up. One is physically more critical, more abusive perhaps, one walks away, one swipes at the canvas with greater vigor, one rubs out, with a turps sodden cloth, previous statements with a greater annoyed enthusiasm when one is standing up rather than sitting down. One sits to read, to listen but rarely to act. And that putting on and rubbing out and putting on and looking again and looking again that is one side of the energy invested. The other side is the critical analysis, that which goes on in the brain. One is not a slave trying to merely recreate the subject. One is trying to create something else, that unknown something else that was unknown at art college and still remains unknown; a comment on the subject, a record of a moment’s interaction of sun, sky, leaf and stone versus brush palette, paint and canvas.


‘And Bomberg, well amongst other things, he spent time drawing cathedrals and the enormous rocky edifices at Ronda. He did not want to record the detail of the surface, rather some inner spiritual significance. I wonder if he thought Cathedral surfaces were like lies; through their intricate detail, lace like carving, they belie their mass, their weight and their solidity. Did Bomberg want to paint the weight, the power of a cathedral, its spiritual force? Perhaps the mass of an object, the solidity of surface, whether it be the façade of a building or the slab of meat and bone that is a forehead should be communicated over and above any sense of surface detail. For me there is an inextricable link between the physical presence of an object and its (spiritual?) power. As the Chinese proverb that David Hockney quoted recently says “you need the hand, the eye and the heart. Two won’t do” I do not claim to have any of the three, I only know that the heart is the most difficult to explain. The other two can be taught.’


Above all Ben's paintings capture the beauty and character of his surroundings and are a testament to how his work is thriving under French skies. Ben has exhibited in London with The Royal Society of Oil Painters and Royal Society of British Artists, was short listed for the Winsor and Newton Young Artist in 2006 and shows work regularly with Grandy Art in London and during Jazz In Marciac.


“H. in the Black Armchair” Conté crayon on paper Ben Brotherton (2011)


Throughout the year Ben runs painting and drawing classes in French and English. At the Atelier des Berges du Gers, in Auch, Ben runs painting classes and life drawing for adults and adolescents and he runs a Saturday morning class in Sadeillan. During the spring and summer he runs 3 day workshops across the Gers. In Valence Sur Baise he welcomes tourists for week long residential plein-air painting courses. Details of all can be seen at: www.terrain-vallonne.co.uk


The next edition will be available in June 2012 info@gasconylocal.com


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