What inspires your art practice?
I have loved art from as far back as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is being allowed to draw on the wall beside the stairs in the old farm house we lived in near Bucks Mills. I filled the area with shoals of fish swimming up the stairs.
I feel very fortunate that I was born into an artistic family where creativity was valued and encouraged. As a teenager I was powerfully impacted by the Rothko paintings in the Tate Modern. I loved the way they seemed luminous, as if they possessed a light of their own and how they had a transcendent quality about them. The clarity of vision in these powerful and harmonious paintings inspired me to paint.
Although painting has always been part of my life, it took a backseat for a while to ceramics. My wife and I ran a pottery studio at Welcombe on the Devon/Cornish border, and I continued working with clay while we were living in New Zealand.
It was one day on the way home from working in the pottery studio that I saw a large piece of board abandoned and leaning against a wall. I was drawn to it and realised it was a perfect surface for a painting. I made a promise to myself that if it was still there the next day I would take it and start painting again; it was, and I haven’t looked back.
What influence do you take from the coast and nature?
My happiest memories from childhood all involve water – exploring rock pools, snorkelling, mackerel fishing from a tiny dinghy we called ‘the soap dish’ and later, learning to surf on the beaches and reefs of North Devon which eventually led to exploring the oceans around the world.
The unifying thread in all these experiences is beauty: the miniature underwater garden of a rock pool filled with exciting creatures, the azure sea with the light dancing in columns as it hits and penetrates the surface on a hot summer day, the iridescent sheen of a mackerel or the graceful power of waves. My art is my way of translating and expressing these moments of beauty and wonder – a distillation of memory and experience into a painting.
The paintings are abstracted and open landscapes which carry an emotional charge. People often tell me they feel peaceful or uplifted when viewing them, which is always incredibly meaningful and inspiring to hear.
How important is the Coast Path to you?
I feel very fortunate to live right beside the South West Coast Path in Appledore. In fact, as I write this, a group of walkers have just passed by my window.
On beautiful days, my wife and I will often spontaneously take time away from the studio to walk a new section of the path, swim, surf, or just soak up the changing light and colours of the coastline. These walks offer a rhythm and reset, a space for reflection and creative recharge.
Having lived in countries where access to the coast can be limited by private ownership, I feel enormous gratitude for the freedom the Coast Path offers. It’s a national treasure, a living thread connecting us to nature, each other and ourselves.
Discover more of Ben’s work
If you’ve been inspired by this story and want to explore more of Ben’s work you can visit The Brownston Gallery to view his current collection.
https://www.brownstonart.com/artists/190-ben-lucas/works/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/benlucaspaintings/
Website https://benlucas.com/
The South West Coast Path 