Seascapes, Mick Bensley
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Location: D Floor, West Block, QMC
Mick Bensley was born in Sheringham, on the North Norfolk coast. Growing up by the North Sea, Bensley developed a profound understanding of its many moods and adverse weather conditions, producing his first watercolourpaintings of maritime rescues. The descriptions of the rescues, impossible feats against overwhelming odds and the selfless courage of the men who crew lifeboats inspired and motivated him to paint this subject.
He was a student at Norwich School of Art, after which he worked in London for 15 years as a designer and illustrator. Throughout the seventies he continued to paint maritime watercolours and oils and in 1980 returned to Norfolk to paint professionally, gaining a reputation as a marine artist of skill and accuracy, with paintings in private collections around the world.
“....it takes some two and a half years to complete a quantity of working drawings, sketches and paintings. Research usually begins through reading RNLI reports or being fortunate enough to find someone who was involved in the incident. Whilst reading a description of a rescue I find myself undertaking a thumbnail sketch and, more often than not, this usually forms the basis of a finished painting. From the thumbnails sketch a much more detailed working drawing is made concentrating of the run of the sea and the action of the crew and their boat. “
He now lives and works overlooking the sea in Rottingdean on the Sussex Coast, dividing his time between painting (in oils, watercolour and pastels) and teaching watercolour technique and methods.