Ben Jeffery

Ben Jeffery was born in North London in 1986 and had always had a keen interest in art. This was ever since his grandfather introduced him to the work of John Varley. The renowned 18th Century watercolour artist, as the Varleys are related to the Jeffery family.

He first realised he wanted to be an artist in secondary school. A few classmates and him used to have bets to see who could draw the best portrait of someone. He painted a portrait of his dad for a mock GCSE which got admired by the entire art class.

He continued to study Art to degree level and although he recieved a lot of guidance he is mainly self taught. When studying Art at College and University, he was mainly left to his own devices. He was given a subject and asked to come up with a portfolio of work and to develop an idea to a few final images. The teachers did not teach him techniques or give him inspiration so he taught himself and used the internet for inspiration.

Ben always wanted to paint with oils and come up with colourful detailed paintings. This wasn’t always well received by his tutors. It was then that Jeffery picked up methods and techniques to get the mark making he wanted with oil paints. He tried with many different techniques and different styles until he found his own style. This then evolved to where he is today.

A lot of the time a painting transpires as he paints it. Ben always has a basic composition in mind but he lets the brush come up with the shapes and he chooses colour almost on the spot. Other times Jeffery sees an image in his head and quickly sketches it out and comes back to it later.

Ben normally works in two stages. He first paints the entire canvas in base colours. After it has dried, he paints a second layer, adding more and more detail. After he finishes a painting, he leaves it a day or so before looking at it again. This helps Ben pick up on areas that need changing.

His work is fairly diverse, ranging from portraits to landscapes, in both pencil and oils. Ben loves working with vivid, bright colours to create a unique and modern style. He is huge Sci-fi movie fan and he loves special effects.

There was a time after he finished University when he wanted to be a concept artist for films and video games. Ben tried digital painting and got very good results, but paint just has a depth and feel that cant be beaten. He still search on internet for concept artwork and get a lot of inspiration from that type of imagery. Jeffery also gets a lot of inspiration from views around him: his parents have a house in the Herefordshire countryside and one on the Isle of Harris and both have stunning views which constantly give him ideas and inspiration.