BIOGRAPHY

(B. 1932)

Ben F Stahl, oldest son of Ben A Stahl was born in Chicago, Illinois.

He is an unschooled artist, but has taught drawing and painting at Bridgeport University in Connecticut and the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida.

Stahl has lived for extended periods of time on both U.S. coasts, Europe and Canada. He moved in 1949 to San Francisco where he finished high school. In 1953, he was drafted into the US Army and assigned to the 21st Topographical Battalion at the Presidio of San Francisco to be trained as a mapmaker. Leaving the Army in 1955, he was employed by Famous Artist School, a correspondence art school located in Westport, Connecticut, as an instructor where, using drawn and painted demonstrations, he critiqued students' solutions to various artistic problems assigned to them in their course.

In 1965, he as appointed "Director of Art Education", in Amsterdam, Holland, supervising a staff of 30 artists of several nationalities. In 1968, he returned to Westport, CT, to act as "Head of Art Instruction", leaving in 1972 to develop his career as a freelance illustrator.

His art has been commissioned by most publishers in North America including Bantam Books, Reader's Digest Condensed Books, The Franklin Library, The Limited Edition Book Club, Putnam Publishing Group, Golden Books, Warner Books, Random House, Houghton Mifflin, Troll Publishing Co., Scholastic Publishing Co., Albert Whitman Publishing Co., the Bradford Exchange, NBC and CBS television, among many others.He has received several national awards for his work in the publishing field including, among others, the American Institute of Graphic Arts Award for "Illustrated Teaching Materials, 1977" and an award for the "Outstanding Science Books for Children, 1976".

Stahl is a member of the New York Society of Illustrators and included in Who's Who in American Art, as well as The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000 by Walt Reed, published by the N.Y. Society of Illustrators.In 1987, he was commissioned to create more than 36 historical paintings for all the covers of the novels written by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery including the immensely popular Anne of Green Gables, using one of Stahl's images of "Anne".

By 1990, he had moved to Prince Edward Island, Canada, where he continued to service his commercial accounts. In 2003, with the encouragement of his wife Pat, Ben decided to devote all his time to painting and since then, has exhibited his work in galleries in East Hampton, NY, Sarasota, FL, Halifax, Nova Scotia and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Biography courtesy of:

Dabbert Gallery

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