Benji Alexander Palus is a painter of closeness; intimacy. Inspired by figurative art of every style and era, Palus works in the discipline of figurative realism, delving deep into the humanity of just a handful of close friends who act as his muses. His oil paintings are extensions of his personal relationships, explorations and celebrations of everything he values and admires in his friends' divine femininity.
In the artist's words: “It's difficult to convey the importance of my friendships with these few women who inspire me to paint. They are my art. They inspire me with the very fabric of who they are, down to their core – the way they love and live their lives, raise their families, and overcome hardship and tragedy.”
1- What is different from your art work than other artists working in contemporary realism?
I try not to compare my work to other artists' work (thief of joy, and all), but maybe it's the straightforward nature of the scenes I generally paint. There's not a lot of symbolism in my work. I don't believe that a deeper meaning to an image is necessary to make it more beautiful, or if you'll excuse the redundancy, more meaningful. I paint actual moments that I've experienced with my muses which capture their own unique personalities, and prefer to leave it to the viewer to project their own feelings and thoughts onto them. For example, I recently finished a painting of my pregnant friend at a restaurant, checking her sandwich for mayonnaise. It's so simple but I find the image beautiful and funny - it's just something that she does because she really hates mayonnaise, yet there was something there so endearing to me, and yes, moving. I can only hope that viewers will find as much delight as I do in the little moments like that.
2- How important is process versus the end result?
I think the end result is really what matters most. That's the part that lasts. Looking at my finished pieces, you'd never know which ones were a struggle and which ones came easily - which started with a detailed sketch and which started as blobs of color on the canvas. That said, though, to the artist the process is all there is. However, once a painting is finished it goes out of your hands and off into the world. It's no longer yours. From an altruistic perspective, what you're giving to the world is far more important than your own individual experience.
3- What is your ultimate goal when creating contemporary realism?
I want to give people wonder. When I see a piece of art and it fills me with wonder, it's like magic. It transports and transforms and connects with me. If I can create something that gives people that sense of wonder, it's like a sacred privilege, for which I am inexpressibly grateful.
4 -What do you like best about your work?
I guess it's the fact that since I paint my closest friends, my work gives me so much time to spend with them. An artist by necessity spends long stretches of time working in solitude, but for me that lonely time is spent reliving memories on the canvas in between the times that those memories are being made. It keeps the people that I love close to me, even when they live a thousand miles away.
5- What do you do you like least about your work?
That's easy - there's not enough of it! I work too slowly! I wish I could be one of those artists that pumps out thirty paintings a year, but if I can finish one a month it feels like an accomplishment. I'm more prolific than I used to be, but it never feels like I'm doing enough.
6 -Why contemporary realism?
From my earliest childhood, realism has been the style to draw my eye and move me the most, so that's what I do. I'm a realist by nature. I'm not a spiritual person, nor particularly philosophical. I know that spirituality, philosophy, and symbolism play a large part of realism art, but honestly those aren't the aspects that appeal to me, at least not in the work that I do. I love that I can create a painting and a person, thing, time, and/or place are made real on the canvas - capturing a real moment, real emotions. I love the freedom of that simplicity. My paintings usually don't "mean" anything. They're captured moments, slices of life, and hopefully that's what makes them resonate.
7- Which are your greatest influences?
I can throw out some names - Sargent, Titian, DaVinci, etc, or contemporary artists like Pamela Wilson, Jeremy Lipking, Casey Baugh, Heather Brunetti, but the list would be unending. I have thousands of influences. Every single piece of realism art that I've ever seen has left a mark.
8- What is your background?
I consider myself mostly self-taught when it comes to practicing my chosen calling of figurative realism. Most of what I know of figure drawing and oil painting comes from trial and error, built on some basics that I learned in high school. When I was twenty I took an eighteen month course in commercial art and earned an associates degree, but it wasn't very illuminating. There wasn't much focus on fine art and I missed the week they spent using oils because I was on an internship. A few years ago I took a three day workshop with Natalia Fabia which was wonderful, but that's pretty much the extent of my fine art education, aside from visiting galleries and art museums to study the paintings and artists that I love.
9- Name three artists you'd like to be compared to in history books.
A gallery director once told me that my work reminded her of Caravaggio, which swelled my head a bit, although I'm not sure I see it, ha ha! Really, though, I try not to think about things like that. I just do my best to make something beautiful and worthwhile.
10- Which is your favorite contemporary realism artwork today?
There are soooooo many! But I have to say that the image that first popped into my head when I read this question was “Pearl” by Heather Brunetti.