Sunrise Over Manchester

I draw and paint directly from life, both in the studio and outside. Working in this way results in marks that are reactive, and for me, it is the best way to capture what it feels like to be with the subject. I also create much larger studio paintings based on small plein air studies. In these I try to recreate the energy and atmosphere of the smaller work using a more complex layering of paint.

Benjamin took an unconventional route to a career in fine art. As the son of artist Jane Hope, he was introduced to painting at an early age, but he decided against Art School and instead pursued Mathematics and Physics, culminating in a PhD from Cambridge University.

After graduating from Cambridge, Ben had a spell as a ‘quant’ in the City in order to set up a studio close to Greenwich Park in South East London. Then in 2011 he took a 100% pay cut to begin focusing on his art full-time. In 2013, his painting Teacups in the Financial Times was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and he has since had work selected for the annual open shows of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Pastel Society, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and the New English Art Club. In 2014 he was awarded a Runner Up prize at the Lynn Painter Stainers Exhibition and First Prize at the Pintar Rapido plein air painting festival.

2015 saw his first solo show, Observations, at the JP Art Gallery, and in 2017 he put on the exhibition, Works, with sculptor Ben Hooper at Gallery Different.