Art feature: Ben Giles

ART BY: Ben Giles

This post is entirely dedicated to the fascinating and wonderful artist Ben Giles, whose vibrant artwork and collages catch me breathless. He is a 20-year-old fine artist from Bury St Edmunds, who currently resides in Kingston. He has been featured in numerous magazines and you can find out more about him and his amazing work here. Click the link below to read my interview with him along with more beautiful artwork and collages!

WHAT DO YOU DRAW INSPIRATION FROM?
I draw inspiration from a variety of sources - other artists such as Escher, Stezaker, Picasso have always inspired what I do, along with a lot of work, themes and moods from film and television, but more often than the rest though it's just a random idea from something I have seen, felt or experienced, or even from the primary object I'm working with... it's hard to pinpoint specific things. I think it depends on the image or object and how I can project what I feel or think onto it.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FOOD?
Garlic bread, croissants, Yorkshire pudding and carrots, and toad in the hole.

   

WHERE'S YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO GO?
Probably Berlin - I'm going back to Berlin soon and I'm really excited, there's something about the vibrancy, the weather, the history, the art, the culture... it just clicks. 



HOW LONG DOES IT APPROXIMATELY TAKE TO DO EACH ART PIECE?
It can really vary with each piece, sometimes a composition can form almost instantly, and creating the following piece can take between 20 minutes to a couple of hours. Other times I will frustratingly battle for inspiration on an image I'm desperate to use, and it can be a week before anything remotely productive has happened. It can go both ways.



WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FLOWER?
Personally, coming from me, this will sound odd, but I have no interest in flowers as a tangible object. Flowers themselves have never affected me... I might walk past some and think they look nice, but it's more about what they represent with what I'm trying to create - it's their short burst of life and colour that I use them for. It's a symbol for escaping something and showing that we have literally no time, and we should make the most of it. We should blossom and grow - it's reaching for the surface of water, it's finding your way out of a dark tunnel and making the most of the light on the other side.