H. Benjamin Diaz
Watercolor • Colored Pencil • Acrylics • Mixed Media
My name is H. Benjamin Diaz. Like many artists, I started drawing around age five or six. From the third grade on, the teachers at my school were asking me to draw holiday themes on their classroom chalkboards. At seven my neighbor, who owned a ceramic shop, taught me to make molds, to pour and to paint pieces.
As I got a little older, external pressures forced me to turn away from my artistic endeavors. However, on my retirement after a twenty year career in the Air Force and a thirty-some year career managing technical business operations for large and small companies, I felt that I could, finally, give in to my pent up creative energies.
Watercolor was the first medium I tackled because I had been told that it is the most difficult medium to master. As I got more into it, I found dealing with its unpredictability and the need to carefully plan out each composition its two most problematic yet compelling characteristics.
I take classes to learn the latest techniques and for feedback, but have developed my own technique that allows me to use watercolors to create what I hope is a uniquely personal style that does not fit into any watercolor society’s neat description of watercolor art.
My subject interests vary widely from still life to human/animal portraiture. I am strongly attracted to higher difficulty pieces that involve unusual lighting effects and textures. I feel that my attraction to these more difficult compositions has honed my technical and artistic skills to the point that I have been able to win numerous awards in local art competitions
email: Ben@hbdiazartwall.com
phone: 909-861-5403
website: www.hbdiazartwall.com