Maynon Benson

Welcome to Art in Bloom, a world of bright happy colors!

I enjoy painting many different subjects but my current love is painting flowers and flower gardens.  I paint in a realistic style, using bright colors with a lot of sunlight and shadow to give life to my compositions.

Inspiration comes from memories of my mother’s flower garden and my own backyard flowers.  I must tell you though that my paintings are more what I would like  my garden to be than how it really looks.  I know many people share my love of gardens and I hope my paintings may cause them to recall some happy memory of a garden special to them.

I also paint landscapes, houses, birds, animals and people.  Come into my studio at Sunset Galleries to see more.

A study of water lilies on a quiet pond, this painting is named “Tranquility.”

 This is a painting of a beautiful adobe on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I’ve painted the house twice.  The first time I saw it I thought it was pretty and painted it because it had the beautiful snowball bush spilling over the courtyard wall.  Years later I wanted to see the house again and found it totally refurbished and with many blooming flowers so, of course, I just had to paint it again.  (Both of these paintings have sold; but ask about commissioning a third painting of this house or one similar to it.)

     This bright patio scene with an orange umbrella table is called “Summer Welcome.” The pretty striped cushioned chairs look inviting as does the pitcher of cold lemonade. (Click on the picture to see the umbrella.)

“Gardner’s Retreat” is a study of white iris with an inviting chair, a mug of coffee and a book just down the path.

These three little bunnies are gathered under the honeysuckle vine and look as if they might be in conference about something.  We have three such rabbits in our backyard from time to time.  I can’t tell that they do much damage to the plants and it’s really fun to watch them.  Our little dachshund sometimes chases them, but not too seriously.  In fact I think they kind of like the chase! It’s especially entertaining when there’s more than one rabbit for her to chase.

Tulips are such a lovely promise of spring.  I look forward to them each year.