INTO THE GARDEN
In 2022, Denita Benyshek was the artist-in-residence at Botanica Gardens in Wichita, Kansas. The residency was sponsored by the Fisch Haus OpenStudios project. At that time, Benyshek also began designing and planting a garden around her home.
Outside, enjoying a moment of peace and a cup of coffee, the artist would be inspired by the beauty of plants and trees. Watercolors, inks, and gouache paints would be brought outside. With her two dogs nearby, she painted, representing morning and evening light, conveying the magic of growth, and celebrating life, through transparent veils of overlapping color. Her dance training is present in lines and gestures with the brush, her musicianship in the rhythm of colors and brush strokes. When completing a painting indoors, often at night, she is usually singing.
Vibrating and glowing, the plants, trees, and rocks are depicted in the act of taking form, in an emergent, transformational stage of "that which is coming into being." In these small scale, intimate paintings, the viewer may enter a world that is dynamic yet peaceful, ecstatic and calm, pausing for a still moment in the fleeting, sweep of time.
Click on image to enlarge.
In 2022, Denita Benyshek was the artist-in-residence at Botanica Gardens in Wichita, Kansas. The residency was sponsored by the Fisch Haus OpenStudios project. At that time, Benyshek also began designing and planting a garden around her home.
Outside, enjoying a moment of peace and a cup of coffee, the artist would be inspired by the beauty of plants and trees. Watercolors, inks, and gouache paints would be brought outside. With her two dogs nearby, she painted, representing morning and evening light, conveying the magic of growth, and celebrating life, through transparent veils of overlapping color. Her dance training is present in lines and gestures with the brush, her musicianship in the rhythm of colors and brush strokes. When completing a painting indoors, often at night, she is usually singing.
Vibrating and glowing, the plants, trees, and rocks are depicted in the act of taking form, in an emergent, transformational stage of "that which is coming into being." In these small scale, intimate paintings, the viewer may enter a world that is dynamic yet peaceful, ecstatic and calm, pausing for a still moment in the fleeting, sweep of time.
Click on image to enlarge.
The garden paintings continue to evolve.
On New Year's Eve, 2023, Benyshek wrote a poem, "Into the Garden", as a companion to these paintings. The poem and paintings are in the process of becoming a book.
On New Year's Eve, 2023, Benyshek wrote a poem, "Into the Garden", as a companion to these paintings. The poem and paintings are in the process of becoming a book.
In January, 2024, Benyshek began taking images from the garden paintings, playing with collage and photograph manipulation, to start the Sacred Geometry series.