Who is Ben Hauck?

No really, who is this guy?

Well first off, he is the creator of PaintAttainments and one of the originators of the formal concept of transformational paintings!  But maybe we should travel back in time to see how this all got started.

Born in 1972 in N’awlins, Ben Hauck hails from Cajun, Scottish, Dutch (or German, depending on who you ask) and Mic-Mac Native American roots.  He spent his first 18 years in the spongy woods of Louisiana.

As his dad explains, “When Ben was a little boy, we’d tie a string around his foot and let him go out into the woods to find wild chanterelle mushrooms to sell to restaurants in New Orleans.”

When he wasn’t busy funding Florida vacations with his mushroom hunting, he was busy drawing and painting, or messing with snakes and turtles and mudbugs. By high school, his extremely life-like depictions of paramecium, hydra and other microscopic monsters singlehandedly won him the biology award for his class.  But he temporarily put aside his artistic interests after high school.  And his math skills and love for the natural world led him to pursue a successful career as an environmental engineer for nearly a decade.

Always trying new hobbies, he picked up his first oil paintbrush at a Tucson Parks and Recreation class in the winter of 2002 and immediately discovered his true passion.

“It’s an absolute gift to be an artist.  Often I believe myself to be the luckiest person alive, having been given the opportunity to express something beautiful and magical in the world every single day.   I’m also very fortunate to be able to help others increase their capacity for love and joy and compassion.”

“Over the past few years, I have spent significant time evolving outside of my art to force my art to expand with me.  As a result, I’m occasionally humorous and people like me!  And while I continue my growth and expansion, I now share what I’ve learned with others through my art.”

While primarily self-taught, he has been blessed with the opportunity to study with wonderful artists such as Ken Auster, Will Bonner, Ron Hicks, David Slonim, Matt Smith, George Strickland, and Xiang Zhang. Inspired by his peers’ optimism, he made the artist’s leap of faith at the end of 2003 and left behind his pocket protector to pursue his art full-time.

Ben currently lives in Illinois with his wife, two daughters, two dogs, two fish, one self-perpetuating sea monkey, and the occasional colony of ladybug squatters.  When he’s not creating world class PaintAttainments, he enjoys reading, meditating, Crossfit, yoga and traveling.