Choctaw County
Painting
When Ben was asked how and when he started he said (in his own words) “My father used to get the Sunday newspaper and he would let me draw Beetle Bailey comics every Sunday afternoon. We didn’t have much money back then so I used a pencil and drew on grocery bags and any other paper that I could find.”
When asked about inspiration for his art work he said “My wife, when we were dating in high school. I would paint pictures and sell them for $5.00 each to make money to take her to the movies on the weekend. Several of my paintings were still wet when I sold them. I was 15 or 16 years old then and could draw just about anything.” Ben worked his way through college doing taxidermy work for Mr. Shelby Butts in Butler.
He stated that at that age, when girls, all sports and baseball started, “I stopped painting until I retired at the age of 69…I built my art studio…and have been painting and enjoying and remembering how things were, and a lot of these memories art put into my paintings.”
“Being raised in a slow moving part of the world (Black Belt) where I had time to stop and smell the roses as they say, I had time to take in everything in nature.”
Ben is passing his knowledge of painting to children as young as 3 years of age and adults. Of the children he said “Their little minds love painting and having the finished product to show their parents and friends”.