Glacial: Behind the Design with Artist Ben Goymour

We had a chat with artist, Ben Goymour, the creator of our brand new Glacial design. Find out his inspiration and the story behind his artwork below. 

What was your inspiration for Glacial?

I started painting animals like this about 2 years ago, I got drawn the animals that had lots of character as that was what I focused on creating, big cats and apes were the main things I wanted to paint. The gorilla I love as they are such powerful yet charismatic creatures and that's what I tried to capture with this piece of work.

How did you originally get into art and what inspired you to create?

I got into art by accident really, I wanted a picture of one of our favourite mountains from the Lake District (our favourite place).We wanted this in our front room to be really special, we went to some galleries up there and started searching for what we had in mind, but found two problems. A.) We couldn't find anything even close to what we wanted, and B.) We really couldn't afford them.

This got me thinking I would try and create something myself, I had never painted but always new I was fairly handy. I started playing around and within only a few weeks I started to get quite good, much to my surprise, and the rest just escalated from there.

What are your favourite creative methods when designing a new piece?

Creating and painting are kind of different, painting is the easy bit and for which I use oil paints, brushes, pallet knifes, scrapers and anything I can lay my hands on to make the effect I require.

The creating process starts in my head, I spend days ,weeks and months working stuff out in my head, going through a problem solving process off what will work and what won't. Once I feel I'm somewhere near then I will start to sketch out rough designs to see if I'm going in the right direction.

Once I'm nearly there only then will I get the brush out, then the execution of the painting is the easy bit, it's the long creating process in the mind that can really take the time. 

What motivates you to create and keep creating?

Motivation to paint comes from that constant urge to paint or create something stunning that stops people in their tracks.I think creating new work in a new style constantly really keeps me excited and hungry for more.

Where do you see your art going in the future?

In the future is a hard question but I guess I would like to be more widely known across the board and help to inspire people to create whatever they feel is inside them. Painting has been an amazing gift for me in helping with life in general and becoming truly happy. I think to show people this and it help them how it has helped me can only be a good thing.