SPOTLIGHT ARTISTS: FANTASY & STILL LIFE WORLDS
Ben Steele
Ben Steele is a fantasy and still life artist from Kennewick, Washington who works to blend art history and pop culture into his pieces. Steele’s medium is oil but the range of subjects is truly mind blowing and an instant conversation starter. His paintings are an irreverent yet genius homage to the masters. The tantalizing part of his pieces is the incorporation of childhood nostalgia from milk cartons to etch a sketches, crayons, big chief tablets, pez holders…. the list is infinite but relatable. Perhaps it is the juxtaposition of the unobtainable masters with the everyday items of my youth that makes it plausible. And while the psychology of his pieces is no doubt a topic of great debate, the real attraction is that they make me smile and that is the work of a great master.
Medium: oil paint
Galleries:
Altamira Fine Art (Jackson, WY/Scottsdale, AZ)
Arden Gallery (Boston, MA)
CODA Gallery (Palm Desert, CA)
Friesen Gallery (Ketchum, ID)
Giacobbe Fritz Fine Art (Santa Fe, NM)
Modern West Fine Art (Salt Lake City, UT)
Trove Gallery (Park City, UT)
Size Range: 24x36 - 60x72
Price Range: $4,500 - $7,800
Ben Steele’s “Doubting Thomas.” Two men look into a Thomas Kinkade, otherwise dubbed “The Painter of Light,” which became widely commercialized with spiritual overtones. This is absolutely hilarious to me.
Ben Steele, “Earrios”
Ben Steele, “Michelang-e-Doh”
Ben Steele, “Salvador’s Soft Drink”
Ben Steele, “Magic Screen”
Ben Steele, “Painting with a Jug”. Vermeer meets Pollock, painting within a painting, the context of it all is so outrageous but oh so fun.
Stephen Coyle
Stephen Coyle, still life artist from Waltham, Massachusetts, finds inspiration in everyday objects. He focuses on mundane items like beds, dresses, tricycles, cars, and kitchen tables, bringing attention to their overlooked meanings. Coyle uses shadow to capture the humanity of daily life – poses, gestures, and split moments. His work makes viewers think about the little things in life and that is exactly what stopped me in my tracks the first time I sat with one. While I do not own one of his pieces yet I have dreamed about the spaces they would inhabit. The simple abandoned tricycle that haunted my dreams for months is as vivid in my mind today as it was 20 plus years ago.
Coyle uses alkyd paint to create a color palette that deepens the mood of his work. The larger scale of most of his pieces is what I have determined to make them so moving and well yes the shadows as mentioned….like distant voices from our past.
Medium: alkyd paint
Galleries:
Paul Thiebaud Gallery (San Francisco, CA)
Quidley and Company (Naples, FL/Westport, CT, Nantucket, MA)
Size Range: 12x12 - 58x72
Price Range: $3,000 - $22,000
Stephen Coyle, “Community”
Stephen Coyle, “The Weed Pullers Wagon”
Stephen Coyle, “Dress #2”
Stephen Coyle, “Two Adults One Child”
Stephen Coyle, “Popcorn Box Study”
Charles Keiger
Charles Keiger, fantasy and still life artist from Asheville, North Carolina, uses oil and mixed media on wood or canvas to dance along the line between dreams and reality which of course speaks to me. He uses real life objects – trees, people, animals – and molds them into a fantastical world with new rules. Keiger blends styles of southern gothic and magical realism to draw out emotions from viewers and connect with people on a more complex, intuitive level.
Many of Keiger’s pieces include his personalized frames echoing the subject matter in a more veiled format. Two themes that play out over and over in his work are balance and framing the subjects with symmetry which mirrors the path to spiritual harmony. Recently I received a puzzle (of his painting) from the artist, the perfect metaphor for his work.
Medium: oil and mixed media on wood or canvas
Galleries:
Blue Spiral (Asheville, NC)
Tew Galleries (Atlanta, GA)
The Arts Company (Nashville, TN)
Size Range: 12x14 - 40x35
Price Range: $2,500 - $8,200
Charles Keiger, “Time Stands Still”
Charles Keiger, “The Pass”- anchored in symmetry, balancing on rocks on a body of water- so much to say about this.
Charles Keiger’s work hanging in a favorite client’s home.
Charles Keiger, “Forest Keeper”
Close up of Keiger’s work in my home- hoping you can see the lion with the top hat
Personal Charles Keiger work- another piece in my home…the peanut on the frame is cracked.
Wendy Chidester
Wendy Chidester, still life artist from Salt Lake City, Utah, uses her oil paintings to breathe life back into objects that seem to have lost their beauty and attention. As technology has advanced, old machines, worn luggage, used books, and obsolete toys are to some distant memories. Chidester uses bold colored backgrounds and intricate detail to shine a sort of regal spotlight on these misfit items. Chidester paints them as icons – objects that have changed our lives and have an inherent beauty attached to their timelines. I so relate to this body of work which requires us to acknowledge our roots in an attempt to understand our present.
Chidester uses flicked paint and brush scratches to map the objects’ pasts into the paintings. When up close to the painting, expressionist ideas flow through the strokes. Yet as you back away, photo realism takes control. The dichotomy of the two is what captures eyes immediately and adds emotion to the piece. The thing that really attracts me to her pieces is the brightness and clarity capturing relics in their best possible light. The intentional elimination of shadows in most of her work is quite possibly the best anecdote.
Medium: oil paint
Galleries:
15th Street Gallery (Salt Lake City, UT)
Arden Gallery (Boston, MA)
CODA Gallery (Palm Desert, CA)
Mockingbird Gallery (Bend, OR)
Mountain Trails Art Gallery (Jackson Hole, WY)
Ric Michel Fine Art (Southampton, NY)
Trove Gallery (Park City, UT)
Size Range: 8x8 - 45x40
Price Range: $3,000 - $9,500
Wendy Chidester, “Columbus Model M”
Wendy Chidester, “Attic Archives”
Wendy Chidester, “Westinghouse 4 Blade”
Wendy Chidester, “I Love You”
Wendy Chidester, “Family Vacation”
Wendy Chidester, “Orange Tricycle”
Lori Buntin
Lori Buntin, still life artist from a small farm town north of Kansas City, Missouri, has long been attracted to the everyday images of life. Buntin uses photography as a tool to guide her work. Photographs help capture the structure and light of the scenes she strives to depict. Just as a camera captures multiple images and instants in time, Buntin’s work focuses on the fractured views she encounters. Her pieces allow for space, light, perspective, and scale to shift based on someone’s experience. Buntin’s finished works speak a language of motion, guiding viewers’ eyes through the infinite moments we experience.
I started following specifically Buntin’s body of swimming pool work. If you spent time as a child at the pool the paintings become experiential. Take for instance the side drains she so accurately depicts as if you can hear them gurgling off the canvas. Or those vast expanses of concrete that held onto the warmth of summer with tiny feet skittering across as if they might take flight. And even though the pools are empty, that blue water seems to echo a million different sentiments of youth.
Medium: oil paint
Galleries:
A Store Named STUFF (Kansas City, MO)
Size Range: 14x18 - 24x122
Price Range:
Lori Buntin, “Closed on Mondays”
Lori Buntin, “Fairway Ladder”
Lori Buntin, “Grove Park Boards”
Lori Buntin, “Grove Park Pool, No. 6”