Ben Tour: Raw Emotion
I recently stumbled upon the paintings of Canadian Artist Ben Tour and was instantly awed. Born in Toronto, Canada, Tour has a degree in Illustration from Sheridan College in Ontario. He moved to Vancouver in 2000 and has been building a name for himself ever since.
Tour’s paintings primarily focus on the human figure – many of them female. When describing his own work, Tour says, “it’s a visual diary of characters and personalities…I steal parts of different things and bring them together—interesting people both real and imagined, and animals and objects that they connect with that are visually appealing.”
Ben Tour has quickly become one of my favourite artists. A kind of street art meets fine art, Tour’s figures are enticing with their peculiar angles, splotches of vibrant colour and beautiful characters filled with expressions of raw, often painful emotion.
His pieces are labour intensive using watered-down acrylics, inks, spray paint and often Letraset – oh and that’s only after he has done a preliminary sketch using a ball point pen and white out. There’s a real design aspect to the work as well which, coming from a design background, attracts me to it.
Tour has exhibited in numerous galleries across Canada and the US as well as Hamburg, Germany. His work has also been featured in publications including BLK/MRKT One (and Two), Juxtapoz, and Two Faced: The Changing Face of Portraiture.
To find out more about Ben Tour, visit TheTourShow.com. To read the Juxtapoz article visit MathewNewton.US. To view a video profile from Walrus TV visit this link on YouTube.
Sources: Matthew Newton, Cultblender, Citrus Report
You may also like:
