Collaborating With Ben

This morning while studying some of Ben's latest paintings for images that might begin to take shape Joan made a clever suggestion. Why not show on the blog how this process actually works? It immediately hit me how we could very simply pull this off without an elaborate video production.

To begin with and particularly if you've not visited here often, you might want to check out the video of "Jen & Ben Painting" from a few days ago. You can also find several photo collages of Ben doing his part under the category labeled "Art by Ben and Bennie" over on the left sidebar. One can easily see that Ben has a blast painting even though he also takes it very seriously. We've also seen Ben make vast improvements with his fine motor skills using his hands and arms. You can witness this for yourself in the video as Ben pulls the canvas panel toward him to look more closely at the painting and eventually picks up his hands to move the paint in the direction he wants.

This was not happening when we first started doing this for the blog back in October. We generally would lay Ben's hands in the paint and either move the canvas around for him or he would just very slowly slide his arms over the surface. Those early paintings were much more subjective on my part since I generally controlled the paint colors and the movements of the canvas.

When the nurses began to aid Ben we obviously started to see Ben's own "style" emerging. In fact he's making most of the paint choices for himself these days. We can also see the difference in the way he paints for each nurse. I've felt it important not to influence how they accomplish their work so that I get a "purer" image from Ben's own creativity. I think it's worked beautifully. Let's see what you think.

I'd encourage you to spend a few moments looking at each picture before moving on through it's development. What you are about to see is "step 2" in the process where I have to find that image Ben wants to convey.

This is very new piece that Ben and Lisa worked on together (perhaps a week old). This was the very first time I told Ben we had a specific request for a subject matter. In a few moments I'll show you another canvas that the subject wasn't necessarily suggested but he clearly had overheard Lisa and I talking about what we might be seeing in another painting he was working on. All I told Ben was that someone had asked for a cat. Can you see one? I just happened to clearly see the image of it this morning.

Here I've taken a paint pen and began to outline the image with in pink. Now can you see the possibility of a paw (possibly two) in the foreground?

I've now taken a blue paint pen to continue shaping out a paw. After studying it more as I made these photos I can now see that the paw should actually be much larger. The extra blue arc I added represents how it will eventually take shape and I can also see the possibility of another paw that will be underneath the first.

This canvas was done by Jenny and Ben the same day we made the video. What do you see?

I am pointing at what could be the body of a dragonfly. At each of the corners you can see teal blue paint that could be the tips of it's wings.

Again the same painting. My hand is covering an area that could possibly be the right wing of a butterfly. The left wing is much more defined particularly by the shadow of my hand.

Recall how we discussed a butterfly in working with Ben? This shape jumped out at me immediately! You can see how I've already used a purple pen to clearly establish it's shape.

I'll try and update the process as we finish these up over the next few days. I hope you enjoy seeing how this all works!