Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Vanderwerff.
Hi Benjamin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My story started at age three, sitting at the foot of my bed drawing made-up Pokémon while my mother read The Boxcar Children. Those drawings are some of my earliest memories and marked the beginning of a lifelong obsession with art.
I eventually attended college, spending five years primarily in studio classes and exploring nearly every medium available. Painting was the one that stuck and quickly became a full-time obsession.
After earning a degree in graphic design, I took my easel outside and began painting in the plein-air tradition, a decision that would fundamentally shape the direction of my life and work.
Years later, after building a reputation with several Skagit Valley galleries, I was given an opportunity to move to Baja Mexico. While that chapter was marked by betrayal, disappointment, and a loss of confidence, it also gave me the time and space to continue refining my work under the Mexican sun.
When I returned to Washington, my goals as an artist had never been clearer. That clarity led me to reach out to Harris Harvey Gallery, where I was given the opportunity to exhibit with one of the state’s leading galleries. The show was a success, and I am now a represented artist with the gallery, with another exhibition scheduled for summer 2026. I was also invited to participate in Arts Alive, a long-running exhibition with more than forty years of history.
I am deeply connected to the Skagit Valley art community and its history. Having the opportunity to step away and later return gave me a perspective that transformed both my work and my understanding of what it means to be an artist. For all the challenges I’ve faced, I have been equally fortunate in the opportunities that followed.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This has been one of the bumpiest roads imaginable, and I can’t blame anyone but myself. I’ve always believed that the best art isn’t made in comfort or peace. Both the artist and the work deserve to be challenged, though one can certainly debate how much challenge is necessary.
I’ve experienced just about all of it: soul-crushing loneliness, turning down opportunities and important events, the loss of friendships and relationships, living in poverty, missed opportunities, stress-induced hair loss, and even Bell’s palsy while living in Mexico, which left half of my face temporarily without muscle control.
I’ve invested tens of thousands of hours into my craft, and it wasn’t until my late twenties that I began to see any meaningful success.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work is a combination of Romanticism, Impressionism, abstraction, and the cultural history of the Pacific Northwest. While I can now point to those influences, I didn’t arrive at them through formal instruction or by following a particular school of thought. I arrived there through years of experience, experimentation, and a relentless pursuit of the work itself.
What sets me apart is not just the paintings, but the process. I create large-scale plein-air works while living on location deep within the forests, rivers, and mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Many of my paintings are completed over the course of a week or more while camping on public lands throughout Washington State. I believe living within the subject is essential to the work. At a certain point, the process begins to border on performance art, where the act of creating the painting becomes as important as the finished piece.
To access these locations, I use a converted minivan and spend hours traveling logging roads, backroads, and remote trails in search of places that few people ever see. Those experiences become inseparable from the final painting.
The scale and medium I work in support that approach. I frequently create paintings that are 3×4 feet or larger, using a combination of acrylic paint and spray paint. While spray paint is uncommon in traditional plein-air painting, it has become an essential part of my process. It allows me to quickly build layers of color, atmosphere, and transparency while responding to rapidly changing weather, light, and conditions in the field.
Stylistically, I occupy a space somewhere between Impressionism, Realism, and Abstraction. From a distance, my work emphasizes light, mood, and atmosphere. Up close, it reveals an obsessive attention to detail. Like nature itself, I want the viewer to discover something new whether they are standing twenty feet away or only inches from the surface.
What’s next?
My plans for the future are surprisingly simple. For most of my life, I’ve pursued art at the expense of comfort, stability, and predictability. While those experiences shaped me as an artist, I’m now looking forward to building a more permanent foundation.
In the coming years, I hope to marry my fiancée, establish a home in Washington, and create the stability necessary to fully support my work. Ironically, I think the more stable my life becomes, the more ambitious my artwork can become.
Artistically, I want to continue pushing the scale and quality of my plein-air work while exploring more of the Pacific Northwest. I’m fortunate to be working with Harris Harvey Gallery and to be participating in Arts Alive, and my goal is to continue building on that momentum.
At this point, I’m less interested in chasing the next adventure and more interested in creating a life that allows me to make meaningful work for decades to come.
Pricing:
- My work sells at 4$ a sq inch. Which is a 25% increase from this last year.
- I do allow for private sales on my website, but have work available ongoing at Harris Harvey
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.benjaminsportfolio.com/
- Instagram: Benjamin Vanderwerff
