artist of the week :: ben tour

im loving ben tour's expressive portraits. the subtle non-paint elements add a little something extra to the pieces.

from his website: Canadian-born artist Ben Tour (b. 1977) channels a dark, often haunting sense of humanism in his work. His observations deftly inform his paintings, enabling him to capture the essence of a character, and then distort that view any way he desires. Frenetic lines, swaths of color, and intimate angles all convey a sense that Tour may not only be drawing inspiration from the lives of strangers he observes, but manifesting his own personal experiences as well. Ben Tour lives on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia with his Wife and two children.