Summer

Flower meadows and field scenes were made for Benham's impressionistic technique. In his paintings, flowers and plants are not clinically delineated. They blossom into blobs and dapples and flecks and fronds of colour, as manifestations of the artist's daydreaming delight.

The treatment of the paint gives no special attention to any of the elements in the scene. The brushwork is variegated and informal, suggesting the diverse textures and shapes of flowers, grasses, foliage and trees. One should register the delicacy and finesse of the nuances of colour and touch that indicate the receding space of the meadow to the darkened forest behind.

Benham was a painter, printmaker and teacher, born in London. He studied at Hornsey School of Art. His teachers included John Moody, Robert Lyon and Russell Reeve. Benham became a member of NEAC in 1972 and the RBA in 1977. He also exhibited work at the RA, RP, in the provinces and abroad.

Later in life he taught at Epsom School of Art, lived in Cheam, Surrey, and died in 1993 after a stroke.

Most of Benham's works were unsigned.