The Central Coast landscape, with its vine-snaked hills, has inspired many local artists. The beauty of simply meandering through lush vineyard grounds awakens the senses for artists and non-artists alike.
Though the landscape provides a jumping-off point for artist Marilyn Dover Benson, her flash of inspiration came in the form of a venue. Benson found her niche in focusing on wineries as places to showcase her work.
“This is really my forte,” she said. “I’ve shown at Zaca Mesa, Firestone, Per Bacco. I had great success up there recently. I sold 14 paintings in four hours.”
But doing winery shows wasn’t always an obvious path for her. She needed a little nudge from someone special. Benson and her husband are big fans of wineries and are wine club members with several. On one of their winery trips, as they took a walk through the grounds, Benson’s husband suggested she pitch a show to one of the wineries. So she did.
It was a success.
She used that triumph as a springboard to build her resume and persuade other wineries to feature her work as well. The winery venues became her favorite because of the atmosphere and the relaxed attitudes of the patrons. Everyone is there to have a good time, Benson said.
The self-taught artist has been painting for about 10 years. She’s advanced her skill in various forms of painting now, and looking back at her early paintings makes her cringe.
“My first efforts were disastrous: Everything looked like stick figures,” she said. “My husband thought they were spectacular, but that’s because he loves me.”
Her self-described stick figures have grown a little more realistic since those first attempts—and so have her landscapes. As her skill has grown, so has her success. Since her first foray into painting, Benson has sold countless paintings to people in England, South Africa, Germany, and many parts of the United States. Two of her solo shows at Zaca Mesa Winery generated 44 sales. In 2005, her solo shows generated 29 sales at Zaca Mesa Winery and 17 sales at Firestone Winery.
In addition to sales she’s been recognized with accolades. She was winner of “Best of the Best” competition in 2004 and People’s Choice Award at the 2005 Grapes and Grains Festival. She counts selling 15 paintings at the June 2007 Artist Studio/Garden Tour as a great personal achievement, encouraged by the inspiration she finds in the place she now calls home.
Benson, who moved to the area from England in 1971, said the gorgeous Central Coast scenery inspires her, but so do the sights of her homeland, such as thatch cottages.
“I’m English born, and I have wonderful memories of home,” she said.
Those memories must be vivid for Benson, because viewers say she paints them incredibly realistically.
“When they see the English paintings and they say they can walk into the painting, I like that they can see some realism in it,” she said.
Those English cottages will be a part of a two-day solo show at Foley Winery in Lompoc, set for the first weekend in March.
Though she’s used to doing winery shows, this one was a little flattering for Benson. She got a call from the manager of one of the tasting rooms, who said an employee was a great fan of Benson’s work and had bought several paintings. Benson sent the winery samples of her work, and they requested that she do a show. If winery shows are her forte, so is exhibiting all by herself.
“I delight in doing solo shows,” she said.
Benson enjoys having her work in the spotlight, but she’s also involved in a local artist group. She participates in three group shows with Brushes and Palettes, a group that boasts about nine members and has been around for about nine years. Sharing ideas in a group has helped her to become diverse in a lot of different subjects, she said.
Ultimately, she said. she’d like to be featured in more galleries and wineries. At the Foley show, her paintings of the English countryside will be joined by pictures of Provence and Tuscany, as well as enormous florals in the style of Georgia O’Keefe.
“I love the use of brilliant color, and I like each painting to have a sense of beauty and a recognizable subject,” she said. m
Arts Editor Shelly Cone likes to use brilliant words. Write her something witty at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2009.