VARENNA VILLA
Howard Behrens was born in Chicago in 1933. He has been a resident of the Washington, DC area for over 60 years. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Fine Art from the University of Maryland.
Behrens paints with a palette knife. His skill with this instrument has earned him recognition as the undisputed leader of American palette knife artists. The masters Monet and Van Gogh, and the Italian palette knife artist, Nicola Simbari, influenced him.
Behrens’s works have graced the cover of most art publications, and he has been the subject of numerous feature stories in magazines and newspapers. After a trip to Giverny, France in 2001- he completed an entire series as “Tribute to Monet” that was exhibited in the Embassy of France. As one of the official artists for the Winter Olympics 2002, his painting, “In Motion” was featured at the Winter Games. Numerous celebrities collect Behrens’ works, and they are in the permanent collection of many museums.
Behrens’ motivation comes from his strong passion to capture the “essence” of the places he visits around the world as a passionate global traveler. The subjects for his paintings are the beautiful photogenic locations, usually waterfront, of Greece, France, Italy, Hawaii, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Florida and California.
His works are published and distributed worldwide as limited-edition serigraphs and giclees, and open edition posters. These Behrens reproductions are commonly found in many art and frame shops and seen in many businesses and commercial establishments to decorate their office space.
The Coral Springs Museum of Art hosted a Behrens exhibit June 8-August 24, 2002. Mr. Behrens personally appeared and taught a palette knife painting lesson, unfortunately, I missed it. But I did not miss the exhibit and seeing many of his paintings together “live” was spectacular. 34 oil paintings were for sale. The range in price was $5,000 for the smallest, an 18 by 18 inch “Near Nice” while the “Lily Garden” at 44 by 60 inches was listed for $32,000.
I bought the book “Romance With The Sun” at the Coral Springs exhibition. I chose “Varenna Villa”, one of the featured paintings in the book, to reproduce and use as a mural for a “window seat view” for our “resort lobby” reception area in our office. We also used several other waterfront promenade paintings in the book as the inspiration for the giant mural in the open treatment bay.
Singer reproduction of Behrens "Varenna Villa"
Oil on canvas mounted on drywall, 2006