Mood Lights (2016 - 2022) | Benji Alexander Palus

• Peitho

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14 x 1.5. I began the Mood Lights series in 2016, and in all this time I’ve worked on nothing else. This work is the fiftieth, and final piece, ending the series where it began, with my closest friend…

• Persevere

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 30 x 1.5

• Gather

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 30 x 1.5

• Where Faeries Hold Court

  Oil, Canvas, 40 x 30 x 1.5. Where Faeries Hold Court was a FAV15% selection in the March 2023 BoldBrush Art Competition.

• Candied Wine and Marzipan Dreams

  Oil, Canvas, 24 x 36. Candied Wine and Marzipan Dreams was awarded an Honorable Mention by Alyssa Monks at the Wausau River District's Exhibitour 2022 art celebration.

• Songeuse

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14 x 1.5. Songeuse was awarded Finalist in the December 2021 BoldBrush Painting Competition, and was selected to be exhibited in the prestigious 2023 International Biennial Portrait Competition, hosted…

• Passion

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14 x 1.5. Passion was selected as part of the FAV15% in the December 2021 and July 2022 BoldBrush Painting Competitions.

• Checking Messages

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14

• Lifeline

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 36 x 1.5. Lifeline was a juried selection of 33 Contemporary Gallery's Liberating the Flesh Exhibition at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago in the summer of 2022.

• Softly

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14

• A Held Breath

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14

• Ladybug

  Oil, Canvas, 22 x 28. Ladybug was a juried selection of the 2023 New Orleans Art Association National Exhibition.

• Cruciform Goddess

  Oil, Canvas, 30 x 40

• Green Odalisque

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 72. This work is a vague and humble homage to the masterpiece Grand Odalisque by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - or rather, it might be more accurate to say that it is merely suggestive to me of that m…

• Artful

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14 x 1.5

• Trickster

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14 x 1.5

• The Watcher on the Wall

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 30. The Watcher on the Wall was juried into the 2022 International Guild of Realism Fall Salon Online Exhibition, as well as being a FAV15 selection in the October 2022 Boldbrush Painting Competition.

• The Happy Witch

  Oil, Canvas, 24 x 36 x 1.5. Once in a while I need to set aside the perfectionist and simply have fun with a painting. This one is mostly from imagination, something I rarely do!

• Emerald Tilt

  Oil, Canvas, 36 x 24 x 1.5. Emerald Tilt is a juried selection of the International Guild of Realism's 2021 Spring Salon Online Exhibition, as well as a FAV15 selection in the April 2023 BoldBrush Painting Competition.

• The Poisoned Madness

  Oil, Canvas, 36 x 24. The Poisoned Madness was a FAV15 selection in the July 2020 and January 2024 Boldbrush Painting Contests, as well as earning Finalist in Camelback Gallery's Figurative 2020 Exhibition. This work wa…

• Recollections of a Golden Age

  Oil, Canvas, 14 x 18 x 1.5

• Found

  Oil, Canvas, 14 x 18

• Lost

  Oil, Canvas, 14 x 18 x 1.5. Lost was selected to be a part of The Great American Paint In collection, an exhibition of work exploring the role of art during the pandemic.

• The Depth of Light

  Oil, Canvas, 60 x 40 x 2.5. The Depth of Light was a FAV15 selection in the July 2020 Boldbrush Painting Contest! I could write a novel about this painting and what it means to me, and still would not have made it clear…

• Anam na Sionainne

  Oil, Canvas, 14 x 18 x 1.5. This painting was a unique experience for me. No setting, no action, no color but red; just my friend in all her soulful intensity and my desire to capture it on the canvas.

• Shannon

  Oil, Canvas, 36 x 48 x 1.5. Shannon was awarded Finalist in Camelback Gallery's Shades of Red Exhibition 2020. I usually look for the story in a painting subject. Whether an expression to ponder, a setting with which th…

• ...pation

  Oil, Canvas, 14 x 18 x 1.5. This is the second of two paintings named for a famous movie line that I hope fans of Tim Curry will appreciate. I was intrigued to paint the strange angle that shows the model's beauty in a…

• Sweet Antici...

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14 x 1.5. This work and its sister piece ...pation were named with a tongue-in-cheek homage to Tim Curry. The bawdiness of the joke only really comes across when the two paintings are viewed together,…

• This Life is Scarlet

  Oil, Canvas, 24 x 36 x 1.5. This Life is Scarlet was selected for the Salon des Refuses Exhibition at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art (April 1st - July 2nd, 2022) and was a FAV15 selection for both the July 2020 a…

• Coquelicot Calescence

  Oil, Canvas, 36 x 60 x 1.5. A couple bottles of wine, a loaf of french bread, cheeses, a bit of fruit – these are a few of my favorite things. An evening of drinking wine and gorging on cheese and bread, listening to mu…

• Flare

  Oil, Canvas, 14 x 18 x 1.5. Flare was a FAV15% selection in the BoldBrush Painting Competition for both April and August 2020! This work was basically an outtake from an intensely planned photo shoot. We shot for hours…

• Unguarded

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14. If you hold a camera on someone long enough, they will eventually get used to it, or even forget about it altogether. They'll stop posing, stop being self-conscious; the camera becomes just an exte…

• Dark Carnival

  Oil, Canvas, 14 x 18. I worked on this painting and its sister piece, Night Revels, side by side on my easel, both named for the purple, green, and yellow light – the colors of Mardi Gras. It may seem incongruous to nam…

• Night Revels

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14. This work is the sister piece to Dark Carnival, both named with a nod to the Mardi Gras colors of purple, green, and yellow. Mardi Gras in New Orleans isn't all parades and beads – it's a feeling t…

• La Modeste

  Oil, Canvas, 40 x 30. I went back and forth with whether I should include this painting in the Mood Lights series. The original light source is a television in an otherwise dark room, as opposed to the rest of the serie…

• PDX Girl

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 24. PDX Girl is a portrait of friend, a place, a moment in time. The piece comes from a trip I took in December of 2016 to photograph my friend and muse, Shannon, in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. W…

• Merry Christmas

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 36

• Sugarplum

  Oil, Canvas, 24 x 36 x 1.5. This work was my last in a series of Christmas-themed paintings. I've always loved that time of year, when the lights go up and the holiday music can be heard everywhere. The Christmas series…

• December Light

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 24

• Marloe Escapes the Child-Eating Chair

  Oil, Canvas, 24 x 36. The polar opposite of Postpartum, Marloe Escapes the Child-Eating Chair is meant to be viewed with a smile. I worked on and completed the two paintings simultaneously, side by side on my easel. It'…

• Postpartum

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 24. With this work I wanted to reveal a lesser understood aspect of postpartum depression; not the pain, nor the desire to hurt one's baby, but the nothingness that can consume a new mother, and the ef…

• Corridor

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 36. This work was a FAV15% selection in the December 2025 BoldBrush Painting Competition.

• Waiting

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 36

• Black Rose

  Oil, Canvas, 36 x 48. Black Rose is a juried selection of the 2019 International Guild of Realism Winter Salon Online Exhibition. Black Rose was also a FAV15 selection in the September 2018 BoldBrush Painting Competitio…

• The Crystal Pool

  Oil, Canvas, 60 x 36

• Deliquescence

  Oil, Canvas, 30 x 48 x 1.5

• Quiet Shards of Colored Rain

  Oil, Canvas, 48 x 30

• Retreat to the Gloaming

  Oil, Canvas, 18 x 14

• Glint

  Oil, Canvas, 18 in. x 14 in.. Layaway/financing is available for the original painting. Please contact the artist for information.

• Trip the Light Enchanted

  Oil, Canvas, 36 x 48. This is the first work in a new series titled: Mood Lights, to which I plan to dedicate the next two years and roughly two dozen paintings. The series will be an exploration of the behavior of colo…