After establishing a 25-year career as an award-winning art director, graphic designer and illustrator in Denver, Robert Benson realized he was no longer interested in staying there, but wasn’t sure where to go.

“I consulted three times with a gifted psychic and she finally said to me, ‘I see that you just have to make the leap of faith and move to California. I see you in a mountainous area, not necessarily in San Francisco but in Northern California, where you will find like-minded people. You could stay here and grind it out, but why?’” 

Deciding to take the leap, Benson bought a three-quarter ton 1988 GMC conversion van and drove west to Sonoma County, where he settled in Kenwood in 2001. 

“I didn’t want to beat my brains out competing with 20-year-olds in San Francisco for design jobs,” Benson said. “I wanted to dial down the stress at that point. Sonoma County was my choice.”

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This watercolor painting, “Long Winding Road, Chileno Valley,” is included in featured guest artist Robert Benson’s exhibition at the Arts Guild of Sonoma’s gallery in Sonoma through Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. The show also includes “Friends: An Invitational Exhibition,” consisting of creations by guild members and other artists who they feel deserve a wider audience. (Robert Benson)

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While living in Denver, he had started to paint for fun and profit. Utilizing his skills as a water media illustrator, he began showing his creations — which largely consist of landscapes, figurative work and still lifes, in watercolor and acrylics — while still working as an art director for Denver-based Cimarron International, one of the first, and largest, digital multimedia production companies in the Rocky Mountains region.

During his first show, held at Genre Gallery in Lower Downtown Denver, he sold 10 of the 20 pieces he exhibited.

“So, I was getting affirmation that my work could sell,” Benson said. “All that changed when I moved to Sonoma County was the subject matter. No more Rocky Mountain scenes: Now it was wine country stuff.” 

He has immersed himself in the regional art community as a watercolor and acrylic painter; participates in exhibitions, co-op galleries and outdoor shows; and teaches watercolor classes.

Benson is the featured guest artist in the current Arts Guild of Sonoma show, which runs through Monday, Sept. 28. His exhibition is running concurrently in the guild gallery with “Friends: An Invitational Exhibition,” consisting of creations by guild members and other artists who they feel deserve a wider audience.

“I have not shown my work in this venue before,” he said. “I chose my seven strongest works from the last year or so for the show.”

His main artistic influences in watercolor are Edward Hopper, John Singer Sargent and Dick Cole. 

Cole’s influence on Benson has been particularly significant. In 2008, Benson felt the need for a coach to help him elevate the quality of his painting. He had begun following Cole’s work in Communication Arts and Art Direction magazines while attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the 1970s and was thrilled to find that he was living in Sonoma.

Cole, who passed away in 2016, was a highly respected, nationally recognized watercolor artist. He assisted in the founding of Sonoma Plein Air in 2002 and was posthumously named the 2016 Sonoma Treasure Artist.

“Dick Cole not only changed my work: He changed my life,” Benson said. “He taught me that values do all the work and color gets all the credit. He taught me a great deal about getting back to value, composition, light and shadow.”                                                                                                     

Benson said Cole also became “the cool dad I didn’t ever have.”

“He gave me life lessons,” Benson said. “We got together about every other weekend. Weekends with Dick. For 8 years. When he passed, I was crushed.”

Benson creates paintings that provide a fresh perspective of familiar subjects with universal appeal. His goal is to stay loose and let the viewer’s eye fill in where there is little detail and to evoke an emotional response when interacting with the spirit of his work.

“My favorite painters and paintings do this,” he said. “They provide just enough visual information for you to ‘get it.’ I do not have to paint every hair on a bear for you to see that a painting is of a bear. If I can paint a scene where in two or three strokes, you know there is a bear in the scene, then I have done my job. I don’t enjoy fussy work.”

Many of his creations include vintage subjects, such as old trucks, cars, barns and trailers that contain strong light and shadow patterns that convey the rustic qualities he seeks to capture. 

“I guess I like rust, or patina — something with a history and a story to tell,” Benson said. “I was raised in a place (the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York) where barns that are over 150 years old still stand. Those are the first things I began to draw and paint as a teen. Their hand-hewn timbers, shaped with an awl, and the large pegs holding them together tell me a story of how people built their lives and communities.” 

He regards his top accomplishments as being included in a national exhibit of the California Watercolor Association, receiving Best of Show and Best of Painting awards at a Day on the Green show in Montgomery Village in Santa Rosa and serving as resident artist at Chateau St. Jean Winery in Kenwood for six years.  

Benson, who now lives in Santa Rosa, also has been invited to teach watercolor classes and do demonstration workshops for Northern California art associations and frequently teaches classes at Sonoma Community Center.    

“I felt the need to carry the torch forward that my mentor, Dick Cole, had carried,” he said. “I felt a connection to Sonoma Community Center as Dick had taught there and I took some of his classes. At the art associations, I have a chance to connect with the art community and peers — and maybe a chance to show off. There’s an element of theater in doing demos. I enjoy being on stage.”

He encourages his students and other artists to follow their dreams.

“My father didn’t encourage me, saying, ‘If you learn a trade and become an electrician or a plumber, you’ll never go hungry. You can always pursue art as a hobby later, or go into the Army and then get the GI Bill for art school.’ He wouldn’t give me a dime for art school.” 

Benson’s mother told him he would starve if he focused on a career as an artist.

“My response was, ‘Not me. I’m going to be a commercial artist. People will pay me to draw,’’’ he said. “They did. So, don’t let your dream die.”