Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben & Jen Keys.
Ben & Jen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
After deciding to make a somewhat dramatic career shift from marketing to become an artist, I went back to school to study painting at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and then in Italy, and afterward, moved to Wrightsville Beach, NC to create paintings for private collectors and galleries. My Uncle was a custom home builder there, and he hired me for my first commissioned series, painting the historic cottage architecture of Wrightsville Beach homes. It took off from there with my coastal landscape paintings … and ultimately, that’s how I met my wife, Jen! (She saw one of my paintings hanging in an office and asked who the artist was.) Shortly after Jen and I met, I received my first live wedding painting job. At the time, Jen was also involved in the bridal gown side of the wedding industry, and even she had not heard of this idea of a “Live Wedding Painter.” In 2011, I painted my first wedding live, and from there it grew to where we are today! I’ll never forget Jen saying after responding to that inquiry, “how crazy would it be if you traveled the world painting weddings?” Fast forward … over a decade of live wedding paintings and over 500 weddings painted across the USA, in England, and Portugal!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The biggest struggle was that when we launched the live wedding painting side of the business, there were only a handful of artists in the country doing the same thing. To our knowledge, our website was the first stand-alone website dedicated to live wedding paintings, and we didn’t even know what to call it or how to create a website to explain it. We literally created everything along the way. From figuring out how to pass through TSA with a mini-studio to navigating the elements of various climates across the country … we didn’t have the luxury of googling how-tos! The learning curve of Ben painting outdoors, in imperfect environments … was a wild journey! From the cold, dry air in Colorado, causing paint to harden and dry quickly to our extremely hot and humid lowcountry air in Charleston, where the paint is so slow to dry at times in high humidity, and quick to dry other times under hot sunlight … managing the variety of weather conditions was one of the many big learning curves during the first few years.
When Covid hit, like so many in the wedding industry, that was by far the scariest season. When they announced no gatherings over 100 people, Jen didn’t sleep that Sunday knowing what Monday would inevitably hold. Within a week, she held calls (tears on both ends) as brides navigated the cancellations and postponements. Within a week, we saw our entire spring and summer calendar wiped! We remember questions like “Will we ever see a 400-guest-count wedding again?” Pivoting to make it through that season is to date one of our greatest accomplishments as a business!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a Live Wedding Painter based in Charleston, SC. What’s unique is I was one of the first Live Wedding Painters to launch this niche and have been painting weddings since 2011. Prior to painting weddings, I was represented by galleries and my coastal landscapes collected on the east coast. My first out of state wedding happened about 3 months into launching, and today, most of my weddings are out of state. Though that’s the case, our Charleston weddings are so, so special and we’ve made an intentional effort to dedicate a portion of the calendar to our local Charleston weddings. Over the years, couples have gravitated and chosen me as their artist for my emphasis on facial details along with my paintings being true to color when it comes to the landscape and architectural details. And the dress details, too! (Jen worked for a wedding gown designer prior to us getting married, so the dress details have always been an important part of our creative process, too!) We love that these paintings capture couple’s favorite aspects and details of the venue, too! Whether it’s a luxury estate or a beautiful landscape, both make for strong painting backdrops! When I first began, I painted figures very small … but as you can see today, the couple is by far the center of each painting!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Rebranding was our biggest risk to date! We initially launched the live wedding painting business as “Wed on Canvas” but as our brand grew and I became known for Live Wedding Paintings, it made the most sense to rebrand all my paintings under “Ben Keys Fine Art.” This process on the technical side took years of planning and so much effort executing along the way. It was initially so scary, but has paid off as the rebrand and name fit who we are today more than ever! Our live wedding painting couples are now having families of their own, and commissioning family portraits. We wanted our brand direction to feel like it served our couples at all stages of life. This big change felt so risky and scary, but we love being able to more clearly serve all our couples and families under the umbrella of one brand.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://benkeys.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benkeysfineart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benkeysfineart
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benkeys/
