Following his dreams

American landscape architect and environmentalist Bill Bensley considers himself a complete novice in the art world since he has never trained as a painter. He picked up a paintbrush under the instruction of his dear friend and Caribbean-based painter Kate Spencer to manifest his unique perspective on life and surroundings. He also emulated other artists' styles and delved into the world of fauvism art, bursting with bold colours and a sense of humour. After several painting holidays with Spencer, Bensley eventually discovered his own path, which is full of gorgeous details and vivid colours with enchanting figures.

Now, the award-winning artist paints daily from his memories of long journeys around the world, and changes his style monthly, exploring new techniques by using beeswax, wood, nails, ceramics, fire and baking soda to create mixed media artworks.

"I have different phases and I am constantly inspired by a variety of artists. I'll have a month where I look a lot at Picasso, then at Monet, Donald Friend, Kate Spencer. I started off sketching every day to really nail the human form. That's still a task I'm working on daily, and then moved into watercolour, acrylic, and lately, I've added other substances into my paintings like chalk and baking soda to get different textures. It's fascinating," he said.

"More recently, I am toying with sculptures. That's what the whole last room is -- upcycling different pieces of wood, paint, beeswax and all sorts! My signature is colour and humour -- and maybe surprise as half the time I am not sure what the finished piece will look like."

From paintings to sculptures, Bensley has constantly evolved his skills and finally had his first art show titled "Love Camp Explore Dreams" -- now on view at River City Bangkok -- to present his effort in becoming a fine artist and inspire others who have the same passion.

"I work every day with people who are more talented than me and can draw and paint marvellously -- so I decided to get better and give it a shot as an outsider. I call what I'm doing 'outsider art' cause I'm really an outsider when it comes to fine art and I just hope it resonates with others too."

His solo exhibition is represented in four chapters to express his love for the world and humanity, to tell the story of friends in the LGBTI community, and share his adventures, including a fantasy since he truly believed that dream is where it all begins for most designers.

The first chapter, Love, features the love that people should have for each other and for the planet as Bensley is "first and foremost a conservationist" dedicating his life to protecting the natural world. In some of his acrylic-on-canvas paintings, he writes a powerful messages to remind his audience about the natural disaster such as, "If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us" and "The greatest danger to our future is apathy".

Other colourful paintings in this section reflect racial equality and diversity since Bensley is convinced that "only laundry should be separated by colour". Still, the serious issue of racism in his art relates to love and compassion as the painter emphasises how the world would be a much better place if people all took care of each other. In his imaginative painting, All They Had To Do Was Stay At Home And Watch TV, he visualises viruses flying from space and speaking in bubble language about how humans express love to each other by staying home and watching TV.

Moreover, Bensley's vibrant colours and bizarre designs in the Love section were partially inspired by his Bangkok jungle home Baan Botanica where he and his partner Jirachai Rengthong live and host parties most weekends. He also imagined himself having an ideal dinner at this magical house with some historical figures, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi. This fertile imagination turned into a pencil drawing titled The World Of Baan Botanica, full of tropical plants, exotica and passionate characters.

In the second chapter known as Camp, Bensley delineated little idiosyncratic yet fun-loving behaviours of the LGBTI community and his beloved friend Dorothy who had a night of fun and frivolity at Baan Botanica and posed for a painting the following morning.

Having lived in Thailand for the past 30 years, the artist said: "One of the things I love the most about this country is how accepting people are here -- it is no big deal to be any way you want. The good people of Siam are exceptionally open-minded and allow one to simply live. The Camp section of the show is definitely one of my favourites and is all about my friends here in Bangkok."

"Camp is about the LGBTI community and I hoped to bring a different lens to it as someone who is part of it," he added.

Bensley also painted a portrait of an Islamic man named Hasan who just loves his new pair of Gucci glasses, as he would like to bring gay people into the light when "there is not much space" for them in the Muslim world. He also applied mixed medium in his first abstract painting The Chalk And Cheese World Of Rupaul And Trump to convey his personal views on Rupaul's drag race and the Trump administration.

Like his interior designs, all paintings in the Camp segment presented a wide range of unique styles.

"With my hotel designs, I take great pride in not having a particular style, as every hotel owner wishes to have a unique piece. So at this point in my art adventure, I am changing my inspiration every month. I use a pencil, marker, watercolours, charcoal, acrylics and oils," he explained.

Seemingly, Bensley's art may never become out-of-date, yet captivate new, fluid inspiration.

The third chapter Explore begins with his last trip in late 2019 when Bensley went on a boat The Kudanil Explorer with his sister and a bunch of his friends. This adventure travelling Indonesia's islands and meeting generous Papuan people are depicted in a new series of watercolour sketches and later acrylic paintings.

He cheerfully said: "It is a very remote set of islands that have existed for thousands of years with extraordinarily little connection to modern society, so for many of the places that we stopped at, we were the first visitors in a very long time. The locals were excited to see new faces and as I speak Bahasa, we started exchanging stories very quickly. They were happy to let me draw them, getting excited as to who might get their portrait done next, with the rest of the family watching over my shoulder. It was really a unique experience, one that I treasure."

The nature lover also enjoyed sketching the dazzling array of spectacular fish he saw when diving in Papua. After his return to Bangkok, he created full-scale paintings based on these field drawings. Apparently, each painting in this section has an associated original sketch.

For the last chapter titled Dreams, Bensley takes his guests on a journey down the rabbit hole into a figment of his imagination. He further explained that "dreams for designers are the starting point of everything" and in fact, it was a whole other world, full of dizzyingly fun designs people could possibly imagine and bring to life.

This section prominently displays a mix of both paintings and sculptures, which Bensley regarded as the most adventurous and challenging part since statue art was new to him.

"I am still nervous about my artistic side coming out as this is putting my soul on the line, about being told my art isn't good enough -- but if you try to put out art that is for everyone, you'll end up with a blank canvas," he said.

In his large set of mixed media artwork with a bedroom background, Bensley successfully made a pair of statues from wood titled Tonight and Botanical Yin & Yang. As the sculpture Tonight features a couple looking at each other's eyes, he poked fun at his own work by turning away the male's face from the woman and saying "it is not tonight".

"Love Camp Explore Dreams" is being held at River City Bangkok Galleria on the 2nd floor and is running until Monday. All proceeds will go to the Shinta Mani Fund Conservation and Wildlife Protection in support of their work in nature conservation, wildlife protection and philanthropy. Visit rivercitybangkok.com for further information.