Amazing October News

Hello Art Collector,

I have a lot of amazing things to cover for this month’s artist newsletter. Before anything else, I need to talk about this most important piece of news. If you have been following my work and story at all, you will know I have been in a fight against cancer for some time now. It’s honestly been an emotional rollercoaster, and after treatment, it was coming down to the wire finding out if I was in the clear or if a biopsied suspicious lymph node meant my cancer had spread.

It’s official… My cancer is in remission!

I honestly was not expecting the amount of relief I felt finding this out. Perhaps I’m not the best at being aware of how heavy things can weigh on me. Well… I should know that by now, with my past, but we’ll talk about that later.

“Darkness to Light” & The 2026 Door 2 Art Show

Finding out this great news makes the next great news even more appreciated by me:

This past weekend was the opening and reception for the 2026 Door 2 Art Show. This exhibit is the biggest crowd I get to see with any of the exhibits I have visited before. A judged exhibit I submitted only one painting to: “I’m Sorry, It’s Cancer”. This watercolor self-portrait was to capture the feeling of the moment that I first heard my diagnosis. This year was a first, where they included a theme that artists submitting their work could opt to be a part of. The theme was “Darkness to Light”, which I think is a perfect fit for my entire narrative now and in the future, and especially for this piece.

Even better news…

“I’m Sorry, It’s Cancer” was awarded 1st place!

While the exhibit is now over, the selected winners of the show will be shown at Christ Community Chapel (750 W Streetsboro St, Hudson, OH) next weekend.

Upcoming Original Painting Auction

Since the burden of medical appointments has lifted, this finally means more time for me to get back to painting. And to prepare, going full steam ahead, I would like to clear out some of the paintings I have that do not fit into my main body of work or into my big narrative. Many of them are older pieces or exploratory.

Starting November 1st, I’ll put those paintings up for auction on my website. Starting at low enough bids to cover shipping, this would be a good time to grab an original painting from me for likely a reasonable price.

Until November 1st, I’m also going to start offering these pieces at 50% off, in case anyone is a huge fan of any of these works but wants to avoid a bidding war. These paintings will sit in their own category on my shop, so you may browse through them. They will start being listed for sale within the upcoming week. If you have any particular interest in any pieces, please let me know, and I will expedite that listing.

Egg Tempera Debut: Second April Gallery

The opening for Second April’s Dolly Parton Exhibit was this last First Friday, in downtown Canton.

The show is open for the rest of the month if you want to stop by and see my first Egg Tempera painting in detail.

Opening Up Commission Requests

Since I have more time, and I hope that I can potentially transition to a full-time artist, I have decided to finally start taking commissions again. I know I have had a lot of requests in the past for this, and I have turned down a lot of you. But if you’re still considering a watercolor painting by me, now is the time.

If I get enough commission requests, then I will make the decision to go full time. It’s that last little push I need to get me there. For now, my commission prices will start at $5 per square inch. So that means a 12x16 inch painting, which is 192 square inches, will cost $960 for a commission. If you’re local, this will include basic framing, or shipping rolled up in a protective tube if you are not. A 50% deposit will be required before starting, and the rest will be due upon completion.

Stark County Artists Exhibition at Massillon Museum

Now that the Door 2 Art show is over, and after it’s done being display at the Winner’s Circle showing, it will be off to it’s next exhibit. The 2026 Stark County Artists Exhibit at the Massillon Museum!

Even though Massillon has a notorious reputation of their artist community being unwelcoming or unkind, even threateningly hostile at times to outsiders, it is however taking me back to a city I lived in for many years. Prior to my short-lived move to Germany, Massillon is the city where many of the events of my current and future works unfolded. And of course, the start of the events that eventually led me to become an artist. Which one day I will get into with narrative works.

Being featured in Massillon Museum is always a great honor. Especially in a Museum I used to belong to as a patron of their James & Eliza Duncan Society, years before I even considered drawing or painting again. It makes it especially meaningful to now be one of the artists in a museum I used to admire the artwork in.

The exhibit will run from November 7th through January 10th. You can catch me at the reception for the exhibit, accompanied by the lovely Miss Dianne, who I’m sure will be keeping me smiling.

Collector Input: Studio Postcard Formats

I do have an opinion to ask of everyone. Lately, I have felt that the vendor that manages shipping out postcard orders for my work has met the quality standards I have for my customers in terms of timeliness. I only ever use this vendor for postcards, so I will choose one of two other vendors to replace them. However, I have a decision to make.

I can either offer the same price as before, one postcard for $5 USD, or I can offer 10 postcards for $10 USD. Instead of trying to guess what my fans and collectors would prefer, I figured it would be better to just ask. So I put together a quick survey for people to vote on.

Closing the Edition of One Last Walk With Izzy

The reception of One Last Walk With Izzy has been phenomenal. The painting has been my most successful seller so far. Between giclee prints, canvas prints, postcards, and miniature prints, I have sold over 1,000 copies of that watercolor landscape painting.

It’s time to move on. Not only to keep the scarcity of my limited giclee prints to a limited quantity for my collectors, but I don’t want to be known for just a singular work. I will have more paintings expanding on Izzy’s story in the future, just not in the same way that painting has brought feelings to so many others.

At the end of the year, I will be closing all sales of giclee prints for One Last Walk With Izzy.

Canvas prints and other material prints (e.g. metal) will be open for a little while longer, as I do have a handful left on the quantity of those. But I doubt they will last long with the trend I have experienced so far. Of course, postcards will always remain open for acquisition. So if you want to have a copy of One Last Walk With Izzy hanging in your home, now is your last chance.

On the Easel: Light, Shadow, and the Road Ahead

I’m still trying to finish up a gift for Dianne, a watercolor painting of Cherry Blossoms. After that, it’s time to get back to painting narratives that will go into a very dark place. Here is that nice light work in progress, before we start talking about those next dark paintings.

Now for what’s next. “I’m Sorry, It’s Cancer” kicked off the series, that will iterate back in time through some of my most darkest moments, for the collection “Beauty in Darkness”.

My next painting, which is currently being worked on, is Returning the Favor. Depicting the moment of Izzy’s last moments, as I laid her head in my lap as she was dying. Reflecting a moment almost seven years before, when Izzy first laid her head on my lap, on a day I would die inside.

After that, I’m working on that reflected moment, Broken. It takes us back to the very first hours of December 21st, 2013. With Izzy laying her head on my lap for the first time, as we both mourned the loss of AJ, someone we both dearly loved. This would be the very start of my PTSD, which took away who I was for over six years.

After that, I will get a little out of order and paint the very first moment AJ and I met. The title is still a work in progress, but for now, I’m naming it “Show Me What You’re Looking For”. This will also act as the beginning painting of my next series.

Then I will return to more lighted and pleasant paintings outside the series for some time, and expand on the story of the building relationship of AJ an I. These romantic works I would hope would be something more comforting to hang in one’s home. The series to expand this narrative will be “The Heart’s Desire”.

Finally, the most heart-wrenching moment for me to think and type about, on December 20th, 2013, is Goodbye. This painting will conclude the Beauty in Darkness series and The Heart’s Desire series. It will likely be my most uncomfortable and tragic painting to look at, for both myself and others. It will show you a nightmare I had to relive over and over, for many years, until its grip on my psyche finally started to loosen.

These final pieces in the Beauty in Darkness series are all accompanied by writings that were done years before I started painting. Altered slightly for release, they were each written during a process of healing and trauma therapy. You may read those writings ahead of time for each piece.

The Purpose of the Darkness

Then from there it will be back to more lighted pieces. As I mentioned before, my whole body of work perfectly exemplifies “From Darkness to Light”. My work is not meant to focus on the darkness as a whole, but to show the depth of the darkness, to contrast the more lighted moments, so they can be much more appreciated. Hope can only come out of a necessity for it. If it wasn’t for the loss and the PTSD, I would not be who I am today. And even literally from a technical standpoint, my realism work heavily uses light and darkness to contrast the depth, in sometimes even a Chiaroscuro way.

My work will hopefully one day help others who may be in a dark place of their own, and be a light for them that it’s only temporary.

With the best regards,

Benjamin J. Young