Jealous Gallery

Ben is currently a second year student at Central St Martins, where his practice is focussed on 2D work. Ben's portrait of the American president Barack Obama, shown at Jealous in 2009, has provoked an astonishing and very positive reaction from the public during its travels around North London. The story of the making of the painting and an account of the public response it has tapped into was featured in the Guardian section G2 on Monday 19th January. Ben works in thin oil paint on canvas. He was attracted by Obama’s face, the openess, the honesty, the direct look. Ben says he painted Obama in blue “because I saw it as a blueprint of something big that was about to happen. When I think of Obama, I think of the usual stuff- hope, love...we've been waiting so long for this day to happen.” He paints directly in squares without graphical aids such as projection equipment, resizing his images using grids and drawing by eye. The remnants of the grid in Ben's work indicate his working practice and reveal the painterly, gestural quality of his work. Ben draws inspiration from Chuck Close.