Oliver Hazard Benson

Yogini, Female Nude in a Quite Impossible Yoga Pose, Acrylic on Panel, Framed

2018

As is generally the case with my paintings, this work proceeded from a place of unknowing. The specificity of imagery and technique belie the non-specific character of the ideas and narratives presented. The imagery is not tied to any pre-existent source (textual or other). It is not preconceived by the artist, rather it is produced spontaneously in the process of painting. That said, it seems both easy and sensible to connect the imagery in this painting to common cultural material, especially that from very ancient sources. The central figure is very much like a totemic Neolithic goddess- the sort of which seem to be among the most ancient artistic works, examples are extant from eras stretching back tens of thousands of years. A lot has been written about figures of that kind but of course no one can reasonably claim to truly understand them. Here the great goddess appears with wings and entwined serpents. Crowned also with a glowing orb she has become an emblem of a matristic hermetica. The smaller figure may be less evidently archetypical. She is a younger goddess, a daughter like Persephone to Demeter. She lifts the breasts of her mother signifying perhaps how the presence of the child evokes the nurturing qualities of the mother or how Persephone’s seasonal ascent from the underworld awakens in her mother the impulse to again give life to the world. The cluster of gynomorphic figures contained by the crescent moon at the center of the painting refer to the balanced transformations of the lunar cycle and their mysteriously harmonic physical manifestation in the vital cycles of a woman’s body. At their axis is the cycloptical abdomen of the figure enthroned on the moon. The entire totem rises from a terrestrial gateway into an open landscape. In the background megaliths obscure the horizon. They represent a first boundary in time- the beginning of history. Below is the gateway, the opening to an inner earth...

Oberon is historically known as a king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature. Here he is pictured aloft, floating in space, with elongated arms and legs that twist i...

Getting out of one's comfort zone and ending the anxiety by rebuilding the lineal composition, the contrasts of color, textures and even the narrative. This happens just by throwing an impulsive stroke of red paint. While the figure is not in real danger, i.e. actually bleeding, but instead the red paint represents stepping out of one's comfort zone. It means to leave the status quo...

Oliver Hazard Benson Danubia acrylic on panel 10h x 8w in 25.40h x 20.32w cm OB0107 Oliver Hazard’s paintings are produced directly from his imagination and deals with a mixture of ...