Get to know me



M.J. Benson is a fine artist living in Maine.





As a painter, I love the horizon, its ever steady line of delineation between the spaces of land, sky, sea. It’s the first stroke I make on the surface, and often the last. In between are layers and layers of light and color, sprung from my memory but unbound by realism. I start with a framework, a few rules around composition or color, but it’s the tension between what I expect and what the painting is telling me that dictates the flow and finish. I work, and wait, until the ever fickle shifting between place and memory stills itself harmoniously on the canvas.





The strict, disciplined framework for my professional practice as an artist was developed through the rigors of art school, and the teachers who helped me hone my own rhythm of practice. But the work itself is influenced by purposeful and accidental creatives and makers of all stripes - artists, engineers, writers, musicians, tinkers, adventurers and nerds. I’m as liable to be moved by the complex music of Arvo Part as I am by the thick layers of a Willam Turner masterpiece, the Instagram feed of a famous mountaineer or the confectionery masterpieces of a baker. It’s my singular joy of being an artist, to use all that the world lays at my feet, to be a prism at the end of a brush. The hardest part, I’ve learned, is to be fearless, to keep making mistakes, and to be open to all the ridiculous and mundane things that happen when we’re making other plans.



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Selected Exhibits

Portland Art Gallery - Three Person Show - March 2019


Down East Magazine Art of Giving Gala, Featured Artist - October 2018


The Francis, Maine - Recent Works - August-December 2018


Cape Elizabeth Land Trust Paint for Preservation - July 1-3, 2018


Portland Art Gallery, Portland, ME - Two Person Show - February 2018


Portland Art Gallery, Portland, ME - Poses & Pauses - January 2018



Maine Home & Design Magazine - Ones to Watch - December 2017



School of the Museum of Fine Arts Art Sale - Medici Artist - 2015-18


Down East Magazine Art of Giving Gala, Featured Artist - October 2017


Yarmouth Art Festival, Maine - Juried Artist - October 2016 & 2017


Cape Elizabeth Land Trust Paint for Preservation - July 6-8, 2017


Townsend Real Estate & Art Gallery, Maine - Summer 2017


Common Ground Fair, Unity, ME - Juried Artist - September 2017



Coolidge Corner Arts Festival, Brookline, MA - Juried Artist - May 2017



Thomas Memorial Library, Cape Elizabeth, ME - Solo Show - April 2017


Engine Gallery Rumpus Show, Biddeford, ME - February-March 2017


SEA Art Sale, Portland, ME - December 2016


School of the Museum of Fine Arts Art Sale - 1992-2014 (photography)


Wellesley Marketplace, Wellesley, MA - Juried Artist - November 2016



Freeport Fall Festival, Freeport, ME - Juried Artist - October 2-4, 2016



Maine College of Art - CREATE V Show - September 2016


CIA Cafe - Two Person Show - May-July 2016



Maine College of Art - Collect Show - November 2015



Bakery Photo Collective, Portland, ME - Photo A Go Go - 2007-2013


Education

Harvard University — EdM, 2000 



School of the Museum of Fine Art/Tufts University - BFA, 1995


Courses - Maine Photography Workshops, Haystack Mountain School, Maine College of Art


M.J. Benson, Artist


Willard Square
South POrtland, MAINE
617-448-5505
mjbenson@mjbenson.com