Artist launches new collection
Known for his photorealistic portrayals of nature Ben Timmins is an award-winning artist who revels in playing with people’s perceptions.
The first artist to ever win the NZ Art Show People’s Choice Signature Award three consecutive times, Timmins uses wood grains, copper and kanji script as the ‘canvas’ on which he produces large-scale oil paintings.
He says that nature as subject matter gives him ample scope; he deliberately avoids man-made objects.
Blending wood grains, realistic forms and lines Timmins produces images that speak to the viewer on multiple levels: birds float serenely through spaces invoking contemplation and alluding to a deeper sense of reality, while the ‘void’ of the wood grain produces a peculiar calmness.
Painting mainly in oils from his Golden Bay studio, he is a well-established emerging artist.
Timmins has studied Visual Communication and Fine Art at Auckland Unitec but with 22 years of painting experience, he believes self-directed experimentation and research has served him best.
‘‘You can teach yourself technical abilities, but you can’t teach people how to have great ideas.’’
Beginning with a clear picture of a piece, he’ll spend 50 to 100 hours on some of his larger landscapes, and is often working on six to seven paintings at once.
He has been involved in many group shows and solo shows over the last 10 years. His exhibition Spirit of Alcedonia is now on show at Hawera’s Quirky Fox and will launch a new collection of works he has named ‘circlets’. These artworks are mounted archival prints, with a satin archival varnish finish, framed with a copper band.
This is a rare opportunity to purchase an introductory ‘circlet’ before Ben increases both the size and the price of the new collection.
The five images in the circlet collection pay homage to New Zealand’s unique fauna and flora: a stag, kotare, huia, tui and heron.
Timmins seldom exhibits new works outside of his South Island studio and Quirky Fox is delighted to be able to showcase a selection of unframed and framed works alongside his circlets.
Spirit of Alcedonia opens October 25 and can be view either in store (205a High Street, Hawera) or online www.quirkyfox.co.nz.