Winklespruit is a Collage by Michelle Benjamin

Michelle Benjamin is currently being represented by Agora Gallery, in Chelsea, New York. Her work will be exhibited in New York on April 24 to May 15 2012. Michelle Benjamin is a digital artist, who was born in Durban South Africa. She currently resides in her native country in the city of Pretoria. A self taught artist and graphic designer, Benjamin blends traditional and digital art media to create work that resonates on multiple levels, occupying a unique space in the art world. Benjamin is naturally drawn to silhouettes, especially the stark shape of leafless trees. “They are the most evocative images on earth, and I have this desire to capture as many as I can in my lifetime,” she explains. But she is also drawn to other forms in nature, along with people and cities. The artist uses limited palettes in each piece, often involving complementary colors, which adds a shimmering quality to her work. Benjamin's photographs and sketches undergo digital evolution and transformation in her studio where they are combined with digital design techniques in a dynamic melting pot of traditional and modern art methods.
I am drawn to trees without leaves, and silhouettes, which feature quite prominently in my artworks. My favorite traditional medium is charcoal. This comes across strongly in my digital works, as I blend the humble charcoal sketch with digital photography and graphic design. So, I suppose that one could actually say that my pieces are a combination of traditional and new art forms. My favorite modern medium is definitely Photoshop. To me Adobe Photoshop is more than just a photo-editing software for re-touching pictures. I use Photoshop to transform my photographs and sketches into beautiful works of art.