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The Artist. The Designer. The Creator.

Peter Arnoud Bensen

The Artist.

The Designer.

The Creator.

Peter Arnoud Bensen is a professional artist and designer specializing in woodwork, furniture and sculptures (view PORTFOLIO). Born in the Netherlands, Bensen started creating little wooden cars with a pocketknife in his father’s construction company when he was six years old. This sparked the beginning of Bensen’s lifelong passion for art and design.

Following his childhood dream, Bensen became a sub-sea engineer trained by the Dutch Special Forces. In his 21 years as a professional diver, the underwater environment presents unique experiences to Bensen, exposing him to Nature’s raw power and beauty in different perspectives. His intimate encounters with Nature taught him to work with Nature instead of destroy or fight it, which became the main principle for his artwork.

Bensen draws inspiration for his craft from Nature itself and hones his skills through practice. Instead of visiting art galleries or leafing through design magazines where he might copy from existing designs unknowingly, he conceives original concepts from Nature and applies onto his projects, producing novel pieces of art.

More importantly, Bensen is an avid problem solver – a Designer at heart. Intrigued by challenging obstacles, Bensen revels in using art and design to deliver the best solution to satisfy that need. Back in the Caribbean, Bensen once created wind turbines from recycled wood. When connected to a car electrical generator, each turbine was able to charge up a 12V battery. Families faced the problem of having to pay expensive utility bills due to the monopolisation of an electric power company. If they did not pay the bills, their electricity would be cut off. In light of this situation, Bensen designed and built wooden wind turbines in the shape of helix spiral spinners. These turbines were low in cost and were able to power the lights, refrigerator and even a small computer for families. This solves the problem of unaffordable utility bills. Bensen is skilled at transforming an abstract idea of a solution into a beautiful completion that resolves the shortcomings originally.

Bensen works primarily on wood for his projects, be it furniture, sculpture or toys. To him, wood is a beautiful medium and can be easily combined with other materials to produce new elements. The scientist in Bensen enjoys working wood to its limit, while finding ways to overcome the weaknesses. His investigative characteristic is also a motivation for him to constantly create to help resolve problems. Today, Bensen is exploring into other mediums, such as metal, to integrate into his art and designs.

Handcrafting products has been Bensen’s lifelong career, but his ideal is to embark on a business together with his life partner. With every art, Bensen transcends his thoughts, ideas and passion through his handicraft, with the aspiration to amaze others and try to change the world with his product designs.

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