Ben Mosley is one of Britain’s leading live painters and expressionist artists, his work capturing the energy, passion and dynamic movement of athletic display in pieces that may be described as figurative and cubist. Ben has focused on depicting sport within his work since he earned his BA Honours Fine Art degree in 2003 from the University of Liverpool. This has led to being commissioned by the some of the biggest organisations within sport including Wembley Stadium, Manchester United, McDonalds, The London Olympics, and The Emirates and Creek Golf clubs in Dubai. He is an official artist for Team GB and will be flying out to Japan with the team next year to document the success of the British athletes through a series of paintings which he will create live during the Olympic games in Tokyo at British headquarters. He is also the official artist for Barnsley F.C. having created a 60m mural inside the stadium which celebrates the history of the football Club from 1887-present day.
Many emotions play out in sporting events, — joy, sorrow, aggression, fear, and courage. For each victory and defeat there are lots of special moments, and it is these moments that Ben endeavours to capture on canvas. His paintings have portrayed the victory of a winning goal, showed the camaraderie between a father and son as they watch a game and encapsulated the electricity of a crowd making their way to the stadium. Ben’s expressionist style, is influenced by Lowry, Picasso, Van Gogh and Matisse, and he tries to communicate his art to the viewer by telling a story. Painting sport live and capturing the moment is also an important factor in depicting the narrative and Ben has produced live artwork at the F.A. Cup Semi final at Wembley Stadium between Manchester City and Chelsea, and in Dubai at the Dubai Desert Classic where he was officially commissioned by the Emirates Golf Club to produce a painting celebrating their 25th Anniversary.
‘I believe that sporting events such as the Olympic Game’s and the world Cup unite people in celebration’, Ben said. ‘It is a special moment when a nation comes together collectively to recognise an individual or group achievement with such joy, hope and pride. The sense of identity that sport can bring through success can be a catalyst to boost a nation to achieve great things’.
Several successful solo shows in London have led to Ben’s work being televised on MTV, ITV, ESPN, BBC and Premier League TV, where he has painted live on Television. These successes led to commissions from Wembley Stadium, where he is Club Wembley’s artist in residence. Ben has produced two large-scale murals that celebrate and tell the history of the illustrious stadium from 1923-2013.
In 2014 Ben represented the UK at the football World Cup in Brazil in association with McDonalds. His painting “Fans of the World” was part of a global promotion that saw the company change their fry box from the traditional red and gold to display the artist’s work. It was estimated that 60 million people saw the fry box in different countries from all over the world.
Ben uses his experience as a live painter to help raise money for various charities. He has worked with “The Mike Tindall Foundation” Marie Curie and The Peter Jones Foundation to name a few. He normally has between 4-5 hours to create a painting during the evening at Black Tie dinners. At the end of the evening the painting is auctioned off to help raise money for the charity in question. So far his record sale is 36k and he has raised around 750,000 GBP for various different charities. The paintings that have been most successful at his live events are his paintings of London. Ben has a keen interest in depicting architecture through shape and pattern and he uses a variety of instruments that combine mono-printing techniques with contemporary methods of painting to create his individual style.
Mosley’s collectors and endorsers of his work include Sir Alex Ferguson, Wayne Rooney, Jose Mourinho, Frank Lampard, Ed Sheeran, Mike Tindall ans Zara Tindall, Jerry Weintraub and his work can be found in many private collections around the world.