Benjamin Billingsley   

Benjamin Billingsley is a painter and printmaker living in Wlimington, North Carolina.  He holds an MFA from UNCGreensboro (1995), where he studied under Walter Barker, William Collins and John Maggio.  Benjamin Billingsley has exhibited work in the Southeastern United States as well as in Estonia and Russia.

Ben works in a neo-expressionist mode, focusing on figurative and landscape subjects.  He favors acrylic paint, and usually paints with a palette knife.

Ben is the third generation artist and art instructor in his family.  His maternal grandfather, Robert Schellin, was a painter / printmaker / ceramicst based in Milwaukee, WI - he worked for the WPA during the Great Depression and taught art for the University of Wisconsin system for many years.  Ben's parents are Carl Billingsley (MFA, UWM) and Catherine Billingsley (MFA, ECU).  Carl is an award-winning sculptor whose work was displayed in downtown Wilmington, NC in 2008.  Catherine is a weaver specializing in large-scale tapestries.  Carl currently teaches at East Carolina University's School of Art and Design - Catherine has recently retired from teaching there. Please visit their site at http://www.billingsleyatelier.com/.

Catherine is one of the organizers of an on-going, collaborative art project called "Countdown to Peace."  Several CFCC art faculty have contributed artwork to the project.  See the work and download application materials at http://pages.suddenlink.net/w2la_design/peace/ 

 Ben has taught studio art and art history at Cape Fear Community College full-time since 2001.  In 2006 Benjamin Billingsley received the Marilyn Goodman Anderson Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching.  (Courses taught include Drawing I and II, Painting I, Printmaking I and II, Design I, Studio, Portfolio and Resume, Art History Survey II, Survey of American Art, and Art Appreciation.)  Please visit CFCC's online galleries of student artwork at http://cfcc.edu/hfa/artgalleries.php.

Below: Arts Poetica piece April 2009 - response to Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "I Am Waiting."  (Central image of triptych - drypoint viscosity prints.)

Below: "I May Not Get There With You" Feb. 2009.

Below:  "The Raven" 18x24" woodcut Nov. 2008 - my piece for the Native American Heritage Month Art Exhibition at CFCC.   For more information see http://cfcc.edu/nahm/  

Below are 4 paintings recently included in the 12x12x122 exhibition at the BECA gallery in New Orleans.

Below are 2 large woodcuts featured in Bottega's "Achromatics" Exhibition (March 24 - May 16).  Each is 24x36".

CURRENT EVENTS 

The Billingsley family has exhibited work together in two
recent exhibitions (details below) - their first joint exhibitions since 1999! 
Ben will exhibit figurative works in the Nags Head show - including selections from a new series of monotypes.
He exhibited architectural-themed work in the Kinston exhibition, including a new series inspired by his study abroad trip to Estonia in 1994.  The seven new paintings for the Kinston show are featured below.
Track the projects on the "Work In Progress" page!

"Bloodline" - A Billingsley Family Exhibition
Glenn Eure Ghost Fleet Gallery
210 E. Driftwood St. / Nags Head, NC 27959
(252) 441-6584 
Nov. 1 - Dec. 17
Reception Nov. 1 from 2 - 4 pm

RECENT EVENTS:

(Works by Robert Schellin flanking Ben's Passages: Estonia #1 2009 24x30")

"Generations" - A Billingsley Family Exhibition
Hampton Gallery / Community Council for the Arts
400 N. Queen Street / Kinston, NC 28502
(252) 527-2517
Sept. 2 - Oct. 31 
Reception Sept. 17 from 6 - 8 pm
http://www.kinstoncca.com/exhibits.html
Hours - Tuesday- Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.;
Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

 

Wilmington Art Association Gallery "Special Event - Aug. 28 - Sept. 24 - Places I Remember, landscapes by Benjamin Billingsley"
616 B Castle St. (910) 343-4370
Reception Aug. 28 from 6 - 9 pm
http://www.wilmington-art.org/gallery.html
Hours:  Monday – Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.;
Sunday: 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Above - Graystone Inn / Bridgers Mansion (1/10) 2009 (one of three new 18x24" woodcuts created especially for this exhibition - see the others on the "Works in Progress" page!) - "Places I Remember" features acrylic landscape paintings of urban and rural areas in and around Wilmington, NC as well as relief (woodcut and linocut) prints of downtown Wilmington, New Orleans, and Ben's former home, Greensboro, NC.

Summer 2009 Exhibitions -

12x12x122 - BECA Gallery New Orleans, LA

Arts Anonymous - Moore County Arts Council Campbell House Galleries Southern Pines, NC

March 24 - May 16, 2009 - "Achromatics: an exhibition in black and white" at Bottega Gallery.
http://www.bottegagallery.com  

Self Portraits– Glenn Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery, Nags Head, NC 

April - Arts Poetica Exhibition and Auction (Leo M. Hodson Medical Fund) - CFCC LRC

February 2009 - Black History Month - CFCC Art Exhibition in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King

January 17, 2009 - "Foundations" Exhibition at Bottega Gallery 

November 2008 - Native American Heritage Month - Please see our art exhibition online at http://cfcc.edu/nahm/ 

Dec. 7, 2008, 2 pm - Ben spoke at the Artists in the Galleries Series at the Cameron Art Museum www.cameronartmuseum.com

October 27 - November 17, 2008 - Solo exhibition at Fayetteville Technical Community College.  Reception Oct 31.  Artist's Lecture Sat. Nov. 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Ben's work was featured in a salon exhibition graciously hosted by poet Lavonne J. Adams in her home - August 7, 2008. 

CONTACT THE ARTIST

Feel free to contact me at ben@benjaminbillingsley.com OR bbling71@aol.com

MY INFLUENCES INCLUDE: German Expressionism (particularly the Die Brücke movement), Fauvism (especially Matisse), and Bay Area Figuration (especially Richard Diebenkorn).

Check out:
Die Brücke at http://www.bruecke-museum.de/english.htm 
Matisse at http://www.musee-matisse-nice.org/anglais/index3.html &  http://www.henri-matisse.net/index.html
Diebenkorn at http://www.diebenkorn.org/ ; http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/diebenkorn_richard.html ; http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/diebenkorn.html ; http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail/98_exhib_diebenkorn.html

Two new encaustic paintings 2009

Newest still life painting!  Irises and Chrysanthemums - acrylic on canvas 2008