Robert Benson

Robert Benson’s art career started out as a freshman in high school. He had always had an interest in art, but from this point on, he chose to pursue it as a career. With advertising art, drawing, and painting classes, Robert developed design and drafting skills that he would take to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1975 with Dean’s List Honors and a degree in Visual Communications and Graphic Design. Shortly after that, he moved west to Colorado to enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle and to establish a 25-year career as an award- winning Art Director, Graphic Designer and Illustrator in Denver, Colorado.

During that time, he specialized in airbrush illustration and opened a studio where he produced work for ad agencies, editorial publications, and in-house adver- tising departments, including Coors, Rocky Mountain Bank Note, The Denver Post, Mountain Bell, Tracy-Locke Advertising and Westword Magazine.

He also developed a mixed-media illustration style that incorporated watercolor dyes and colored pencil. In 1990, Robert began to exhibit his watercolor work in Denver galleries, beginning with the Genre Gallery in downtown Denver. On the opening reception night of his first one-man show in 1995, he sold 10 of the 20 pieces shown. In 1996, Schneider Securities purchased 8 of Robert’s original watercolors for their
corporate offices.

From 1989 to 1998, Robert was Visual Director for Cimarron International, one of the first, and largest, digital multi-media production companies in the Rocky Mountain region.

Robert developed his expertise on the Mac in Adobe software, which he still uses to this day for self-promotion efforts. Cimarron was on the ‘bleeding edge’ of technology for the time, and the company ventured into inter- active media, producing laptop driven business presentations for Fortune 500 companies, along with corporate theater elements for conference settings, including stage set designs.

In 2001, Robert decided to move further west and settled in Sonoma County in California where he resides today. Here his focus shifted away from the digital world and back to the fine arts of watercolor and acrylic painting. He immediately immersed himself in the fine art community and began exhibit- ing with art groups, co-op galleries, cafes and wineries that were supportive of local artists. His favorites have been in-person outdoor shows where he can engage with people and tell his story.