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Claudia Gonzalez

Ms. Toler

Art 1020

Artist Inspired

Artist Inspired: Ben Tour

Initial Response-

Every time I come upon a new work or artist, my initial desire is to figure out what it

makes me feel. As soon as I laid my eyes on Ben Tour’s work, depression, sadness, and a sense

of burden were my first impressions. These feelings gave way to a sort of harsh anger and anxi-

ety. Maybe it is the way that Tour paints his works, or the way he portrays the characters. Every

one of his paintings seem to be, if not disproportionate, then angled away from the viewers eye.

It is as if they are aware of their own pitiful state and avoid the gaze of their onlooker. They have

in a sense come to life, understanding that their pain is exposed to hundreds of wandering eyes.

For me, Tour seems to have captured in these models, what lies within us all: hurt, heartbreak,

tiredness, and above all, sadness. Sadness is difficult to capture, but Ben Tour does an incredible

job of laying out all possible feelings given by the people in these paintings.

Rather strangely, however, the second thing that captured my eye was how genuinely

weird these paintings were. The characters within them didn’t seem to be human at all, though

they all had humanoid characteristics. I believe the fact that they were so incredibly different

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made them appealing to the eye, at least thats how they were for me. For me, its as though the

characters didn’t see themselves worthy of their “normal” looks. Life and its many terbulations

had washed away love, joy, and any possible excitement. It had in every way drained them to be

ghosts of something that could have been, but will never be.

Description-

I’ve mentioned repeatedly the strangeness of Ben Tour’s work, allow me to ellaborate. In

one of his interviews, Ben Tour explains that, “Most of the work is about mood and expressing

an emotion to the viewer. Bleeding emotion I sometimes call it.” This explanation is exactly what

I get from the work itself. His art seems desperate, almost as if he had a sudden surge of emotion

or desire to paint something, but the idea was fleeting. He had to rush in order to capture it, try-

ing to successfully get his thought across. When artists try to do this, most of the times it comes

out messy and hectic, however, Tour does it in a way that gives his work a certain unique charac-

ter. This seemingly scattered brush strokes and lines only add to the feeling of the work, wether

it is to make it feel desperately sad or painfully empty. I like to believe that he literally bleeds life

into his art, which immediately captures the attention of many bystanders.

By far my favorite part of Tour’s style, is his use of color. He mostly sticks to the use of

the three primary colors, but rarely uses them in the same painting. He paints these dark figures,

shading and adding value using grey, blacks, or whites. Wether it’s in the lips, the eyes, or the

body itself, Tour uses one of the primary colors to attract attention to a certain point of interest. I

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have also figured out that I as an artist am constantly drawn to paintings of people. People feel-

ing emotions so severe, it radiates that though the actual paper. I guess this is one of the many

reasons I love Tour’s style. He constantly paints and draws people in various stages of life. They

may be old, young, completely blissful, or in hellish torment, either way it is as if I am put into

the painting’s moment, forced to go through the emotional imbalance that character within is fac-

ing. In the same interview, Tour goes on to say that his inspiration for drawing people comes

from, “…Comic books and super hero stuff from my childhood”. Its amazing to see how a simple

thing at a young age drove him to become the amazing artist he is today. Tour went on to study

live drawings of people, and after figuring out how the body was supposed to look, started alter-

ing it in odd ways. He may enlarge the eyes, elongate the neck, or make the head slightly larger

than the rest of the body. Adding these effects catches the eye and added a dramatic flare.

Analyze-

Color plays a huge role in many of Tour’s work. He con-

stantly says himself that it is one of the many things that inspires him

to paint in the first place. I would like to focus on two of his pieces

for the specific topic. In his painting called, Grey Scale Series Draw-

ing 7, he draws on a neutral color with washed out whites, grays, and

deep blacks. My attention was immediately drawn to the darkest

point of the painting, which was the hair, and flowed down her pale

features until it immediately stops at her lips. Immediately my mind

races through possible interpretations of the drawing. I

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create my own little back story for the painting, concluding that this is a young woman who is

constantly abused and has recently received one of her daily beatings, most likely by a spouse.

Though the painting itself does not say ‘Look at me I am a beaten woman’, this is simply my very

personal interpretation of it. Tour places her in the very middle of the page, the center of atten-

tion, but she seems to shy away from it. He does not paint her whole body because the only story

that needs to be shown is that told by her eyes and lips. He uses simple shapes and value to cre -

ate a clean portrait. Thought the painting may be blotchy here and there, together it creates the

shape of the woman while also showing her emotions.

This other painting of his is absolutely beautiful. Though

most of it is washed out, Tour makes sure to add sharp edges at

the end of her hair adding to a harsher feel. Once again, the dress

may have rigid lines and is seemingly a twisted mess, but it cre-

ates a fleetingly swift fabric. The painting is also incredibly bal-

anced. Her weight is evenly distributed through her small shoulder and legs and her large hair

and dress. Obvious emphasis is drawn to the bright red hair that is haloed around her head, and

though it seems to be the most incredible piece of the entire artwork, it only seems to be weigh-

ing the character down. So yes it is technically balanced, but the fact that the red is so deep ends

up making it look like everything is against it.

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Biography-

Ben Tour was born in Canada in 1977 and is still alive today. He currently lives in the

Sunshine Coast, British Columbia. People are often the subjects of his paintings and though they

are human, they are often portrayed with odd characteristics. He alters the human form in order

to attract attention. Tour observes strangers until he has fully captured every details of their

scowl, smile, frown, or worry lines. The most fascinating thing about his works is the fact that

the characters themselves seem to forget about traditional ideals or public views of themselves.

Instead of seeming strong confident and beautiful, they are torn apart and give the world the

most exposed version of themselves. Though the women seem the definition of seductiveness

and divinity, they themselves hold dark truths in their eyes and mouths.

Judgements-

Ben Tour is definitely an artist whose whole career revolves around the expressionist phi-

losophy. Tour studies human flaws within people, and portrays what everyone has felt at one

time or another. So many of his paintings also have the ability of being interpreted in many

ways. It is as if they are as personal to the beholder as they are to him. Tour describes that a ma-

jority of the time, he doesn’t interpret something until after he has finished the work. He leaves

the work open, even unto himself.

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Sources

Hunt, Aaron. The 405. Interview: Ben Tour. 22 Jul 2008. Web. 4 Jan 2015.

<http://www.thefourohfive.com/news/article/interview-ben-tour>

Ayden Gallery. Ben Tour Biography. 2012. Web. 4 Jan 2015.

<http://www.aydengallery.com/otherIndex.php?

otherContent=artistsGallery.php&title=Ayden%20Gallery%20-%20Ben

%C2%A0Tour&artistId=11#3>