SOLD Ben Turner (1912-1966) - El Portal

Born in 1912 in Gallup, New Mexico, Ben Turner was one of few native New Mexico artists to become a prominent commercial success in the first half of the twentieth century. He was a direct descendent of Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851), the famous English marine painter. Ben showed a great deal of interest in art as a young child and enrolled at the University of New Mexico and then the Chicago Art Institute upon graduation from high school. He created a daily comic strip named "Jerry n Jake" that ran in over 48 newspapers around the Southwest. After his formal studies, Turner headed to Taos where he met and studied with E. I Couse, Ernest Blumenschein, Victor Higgins and Joseph Henry Sharp. He established studios in Santa Fe, Taos, Redstone, Colorado and Mazatlan, Mexico, where he died February 3, 1966. Heavy brush stokes and thick paint gave life to the popularity of his adobe buildings, aspens, cottonwoods, and mountain scenes. His work was exhibited in the Fine Art Gallery at the University of New Mexico and is in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe