Jim Bensman is a Bay Area contemporary oil painter of urban and rural landscapes. Growing up in rural Ohio he spent much of his childhood exploring the neighboring fields and farms. Jim’s interest in art began in his early 20’s as a soldier deployed to Panama. Fascinated by the Panamanian culture Jim spent much of his time exploring the urban decay that formed out of the recent conflict. Jim began sketching as a way to record his surroundings and remember a moment in time.

After the military Jim attended The Ohio State University in the Landscape Architecture program and continued to explore his art through night and weekend classes.
Now living in Albany with his wife and 2 kids, Jim continues to explore the urban and rural landscapes around him, captivated by transitional and commonplace areas. His strong compositional paintings, much like his early sketches of Panama, are a way of capturing a moment in time and understanding the beauty in the mundane. He often explores a subject by developing many sketches and paintings.