I always knew I was going to be an artist when growing up around my family’s textile business. I was designing textile patterns by ten years old and quickly discovered a career in art. Even though I was born in Karachi, Pakistan in the mid-50s, the great pop artists of the 1960s – Peter Max, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, among others had profound influences on me.

After coming to the United States at 16, I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). A  career in advertising and graphic design followed in Nashville, TN, during which time I worked on some of America’s best-known brands. However, creating fine art was never far from my heart and in the 1990s, I selected oil painting as my medium of  choice. My canvases are painted using a variety of oil-mixing media, giving the images transparent washes of color as well as thick, bold statements using a palette knife. Each painting celebrates the powerful effects of light as it dances off the chosen scene.

Today, I maintain a studio in Nashville, TN,  on the east side, where I paint landscapes, still lifes and graphic vignettes inspired by such modern impressionists as John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn and Joaquin Sorrolla. The subject matter ranges from food still life to European settings inspired by travels to Italy, France and Spain – each painted in a brushy, impasto style.

My sister Beeb Benson is also an artist in Seagrove Beach, Florida. Check out her fun, whimsical multimedia work at www.beebbensonarts.com