Press Reviews
Review of the Art Book by Benjamin Brode and Thomas Steinbeck
Recommended Reading
Donovan’s Literary Services
By Diane Donovan, Editor
September, 2015
Benjamin Brode illustrates In Search of the Dark Watchers: Landscapes and Lore of Big Sur, a celebration of Northern California's Big Sur area which takes the form of a sketchbook of field notes complimented by over twenty color paintings.
Who are the Dark Watchers? Steinbeck grew up hearing of the mythical Watchers who roam Big Sur and live among its trees - but when he told his family's stories to artist Brode, it sparked a search that involved walking the wilderness trails, sketching impressions of the dark woods, and absorbing the area's history and feel.
This powerfully gripping series of images and discoveries promises (and delivers) reader involvement in the sights, senses, and mystique of the Big Sur wilderness like few others achieve in a quietly-building visual celebration that should be in every California library.
Review of the Art Book In Search of the Dark Watchers
Santa Barbara Independent
By Mitchell Kriegman
November 14, 2014
They live in the misty hillsides of Big Sur. The early Spanish explorers and Mexican ranchers and their vaqueros who followed, called them “Los Vigilantes Oscuros.” The Dark Watchers, as they came to be known, are migratory beings, possessed of incredible hearing and impeccable eyesight. Like crows they can sense the presence of gun oil and the smell of plastics and weatherproof coatings, therefore they are immune to high-tech detection and only reveal themselves to trekkers simply equipped with sticks and hats. Who or what the Watchers are, no one knows. Where they came from and where they go is a mystery. They leave without a footprint.
Discover their meaning in an exquisite new book that is part adventure, part history, party legend, filled with illuminating sketches and lavish oil paintings that are flush with mystery, shadow, and light. In the process you may learn more than you ever expected about the legendary Dark Watchers as well as the origins of landscape painting itself.
Review of Benjamin Brode's San Julian Art Show
Santa Barbara News Press
BY JOSEF WOODARD
June 18, 2010
Rancho San Julian -- A Year In Paint
"More than just a random group of paintings, "A Year in Paint" comes together in macro and micro ways. Images of singular scenes on this property are diverse and continuous enough to add up to a grand visual essay on the sense of the lay of this particular land. To an appropriately lesser degree, he makes passing acknowledge of the ranch's modest structures. As a whole, the set of paintings is filtered and given focus through one artist's vision and semi-impressionistic style."
Review of Poetry in Paint Art Show
Santa Barbara Independent
October 11, 2007
"Ben Brode’s seascapes convey a waterman’s sensibility. With their careful attention to the interactions of light and water, they read like the observations of a fisherman looking out to sea to predict the next day’s weather. Brode captures in paint that fleeting moment at sunset when the sky and sea cannot be ignored as they take over the horizon with a dynamic performance in color. High-gloss varnish and smooth surface textures reflect a surfer’s aesthetic, giving his oil paintings the bright gloss of a surfboard. In 'Low Tide,' 'Evening Color,' and 'Lavender Sea,' Brode addresses the paradox of the ocean sunset -- that place where fire and water meet, light and color are mirrored, and time is momentarily suspended."