Ben was born in upstate New York in 1947, and moved to Colorado in 1957.  His dad’s family goes back four generations in the Brighton New York area, his mom’s family goes back five generations in Colorado.  Raised on a farm for most of the first ten years was a wonderful introduction to the world of nature and the domestic and wild animals around us.  Ben had an interest in art early on, beginning in grade school, and was self-taught until he took some art classes in high school.  After graduating high school, he continued his art education at the junior college level.  Ben took most of the art related classes available for the two years he was there.  Deciding that wasn’t enough art, Ben enrolled in the Colorado Institute of Art and studied commercial art full time, and received a diploma from there in 1970.  His most noted accomplishment at the Art Institute was receiving an honorable mention award from the Eleventh Annual Collegiate Design Contest, a national contest sponsored by the St. Regis Paper Company.

After his schooling, Ben dabbled in art, and worked full time outside the art field to support and raise a family.  Finished with raising a family, but still working full time, he’s now able to devote more time to his art.  At present, he is combining his affection with old farms, the outdoors, fly-fishing, rafting and art to produce drawings of barns, rivers, trout, flies, horses and people.   With a reverence and love of nature, he plans to expand and grow from there.  Ben has done commissioned art including signs, logos, store and business graphics, mailboxes, portraits in pencil and conte crayon, barn murals, and paintings.