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Ben Cooney

@benlcooney

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Painting and drawing in Sheffield, UK
💜
Upcoming: Stegosaurus group show w/@prosaic97 at @fronteergallery Sheffield Jun24-28

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Super-Excited to be sharing paintings in Madrid for the first time next month!

@uvnt_art with @cohlegallery
23-26 February
🎉💖🎉

Ekstasis, 2022-2023, oil on canvas, 60.9x50.8cm

#newpainting#cohlegallery#uvntart#madrid##queerart#contemporaryart taken in Madrid, Spain by @benlcooney

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4 years ago

'Night Light' is up now as part of @prosaic97 's 'Stegosaurus', a group show of smaller works from 35 artists, curated by @swseanwilliams (happy to be sat next to you on the wall 😃) Thanks for having me!

On til Sunday 28th June @fronteergallery in Sheffield city centre.

#sheffield#contemporarypainting#fronteergallery #smallthings taken in Fronteer by @benlcooney

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4 months ago

Studio wall.
Currently in progress.

If you find yourself wandering around and among those spaces that have been long forgotten or cast aside, you're likely to come across items sharing the same fate. Discarded forgotten things, sometimes arranged purposefully, mostly not, but they all have a history and someone made them, and someone will have been the last to lay a touch on them. That history and circumstance is something that has always intrigued me...and I think that feeling is *maybe* what I'm after (exploring, creating, inspiring?) when I paint these imagined objects in imagined spaces. Questions rather than answers. Keep wandering. Keep wondering.

"A mystery is not an unsolved problem" - Terence McKenna

#liminalspace#studiowall#oilpainting#worksinprogress#queerart#contemporarypainting taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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4 months ago

Anyone who has stumbled onto my stories over the last couple of months will probably have seen the (almost daily) scrap cardboard drawings (mostly on tea or oatbased snackbar boxes), if not there's a few included here ➡️

People who I've bumped into in real life recently have said they enjoy seeing them (probably not as much as I enjoy drawing them) which is nice, thank you (the video included here ➡️ is especially for you folk).

Pen, paper and a few minutes. For a lot of us, probably one of our earliest, simplest and most accessible ways of expression, creativity and passing some time (should we need to). Definitely one of my favourites.

It seemed a logical next step to put one into a painting. The painting's title is inspired by Carson McCullers' 'A Tree A Rock A Cloud', a short story which came to her as an illuminating moment during a period of being unable to write (her explanation ➡️➡️).

Keep making your marks however/whenever you can 🖤

"A Chair, A Vase, A Flower" 2026, oil and ink on canvas, 20x20cm

#keepdrawing #keepcreating #contemporarypainting #simulacra #trompeloeil taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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6 months ago

"Or Nearest Offer" 2026, Oil on Canvas, 20x20cm

#oiloncanvas #contemporarypainting #newcontemporary taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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8 months ago

Night Light, 2026, gouache on watercolour paper mounted on panel, varnished, 14.7 x 10.5cm. Second slide for scale.

#gouache#worksonpaper#nightlight#queerart taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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8 months ago

The paper was divided first, with the intention of making a small painting, or at least having 4 chances at a small painting.
Finishing the first one (bottom right), left opportunity to step back and see what else might be happening on this imaginary wall. I don't know why the red vessel was torn in two (maybe they tore the paper first as well?). These things usually leave more questions than answers...fine with me.

Individuals and process ▶️▶️▶️

Wall imagined, gouache on paper, each 21 x 14.8cm (42 x 29.7cm overall), 2026

#gouache #worksonpaper #studiowall #trompeloeil #simulacra taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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9 months ago

Same trip 2023. The Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo, the 16th Century Park of the Monsters. Again, a completely awe inspiring place created from someone simply having a creative idea.

Massive massive monumental stone sculpture follies set in beautiful surroundings. The whole place was totally overgrown for hundreds of years and only the local shepdherds and kids hung out there (hope they get free access nowadays). You may recognise the cave one from album covers, and the Monica Bellucci x Tim Burton Vogue shoot.

#parcodeimostri#sacrobosco taken in Sacro Bosco di Bomarzo by @benlcooney

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10 months ago

Visited Nike de Saint Phalle's Tarot Garden in summer '23. I think this was peak mental exhaustion time (see previous post) and the temperature's were 40 odd degrees consistently 🔥🧠🍳🔥

The whole place is beautifully awe inspiring, and you meander up the hillside through her visions of the tarot, until you reach and then enter her fully mirrored living quarters. The fact that she lived, thought, breathed and everything else in there, was, completely overwhelming. Cue a full body cry in a mirrored room full of people, thankfully I wasn't alone. A short while after that as we wandered around, a thought entered my head that said, 'I need to keep painting' (this being the period of creative doubt). I held onto that.

I also found a postcard (last slide) there with an image she made of having the idea for the whole place, and the fact that the whole wonderous place came from an idea/thought and that she had the drive to make it all happen is just completely awe inspiring and mind blowing. Something else to hold onto.

It took me a long time to look at the photos again, I think for fear of undoing any positive effects the break from life the trip had afforded me (shoutout fellow magical thinkers 🫠).

I feel extremely lucky to have visited, and am also grateful that with a little bit of effort I can go and be with one of her pieces in under an hour at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

@niki_charitable_art_foundation @giardinodeitarocchi_official #nikidesaintphalle#giardinodeitarocchi#tarot#iamthefool taken in Il Giardino dei Tarocchi by @benlcooney

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10 months ago

Opposite ends of disbelief
2025
oil & acrylic on plywood panel
60.5 x 60.5cm

I've been trying to write about how in 2023 after working hard (it never seems 'easy') to get paintings done to show in Madrid (i know right?) after working hard at getting paintings done to show in 2022 (again, what?) all the while working a part time job which left me pretty exhausted, I allowed myself a bit of a break from painting, during which time my mum had an accident, requiring me to be on hand. An intensely emotionally and mentally exhausting period (and with many levels of complexity to navigate), and with working too, I just couldn't get back to painting how I had been, and when I tried it just seemed impossibly harder than before, leading to a total lack of confidence, and I imagine, some sort of identity crisis (what IS a painter who can't paint?), which *really* fueled the self-doubt.

Two and a half years and two hip replacements later, I'm still helping my mum out, and, I'm still painting.

Eventually I accepted (I think) that whenever and however painting happened had to be the way, and that that was ok, no less frustrating at times though. Hence my sporadic output since then.

I stumbled into painting as a result of a mental health crisis some years ago. Making art of any kind was a way to get through the seconds, minutes and hours of a day. Posting it online was probably some sort of 'I exist...hello?' thing at first.
And then (somehow) it turned into shows and stuff, which I had no clue about, being a naive self-taught council estate working class upbringing sort of person, so I stumbled n fumbled my way through that bit too, always too scared to ask for advice, probably for fear of the veil dropping and 'Alas! Here stands a naive self-taught council estate working class upbringing sort of person! How dare you?! GET OUT!'.

I know I can't be unique in this experience, and know what a comfort (however small and brief) it can be to discover someone else has been through something similar to yourself.

Stumble on. taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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10 months ago

Floating Vessel
2025
oil on canvas
45.7 x 35.5cm
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#greenvase#whiteflower#pinkcloud#newcontemporary#contemporaryartist#oilpainting taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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a year ago

Sideways Vase, 2025, oil on linen, 35.2 x 45.4cm

#oilonlinen#sheffield#contemporaryartist taken in Sheffield, UK by @benlcooney

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a year ago