Artist brings joy, love within her frames

Talent took April Bensch as its hostage while she was a Floridian kid, and it hasn’t released her yet for any amount of ransom.

At first, it spied on her privately and whispered to her that God gave her something special. She heard its voice and believed what it said. However, she wouldn’t yield to art until she was an adult.

Maybe that’s why talent made her the unofficial and unpaid artist commissioned by numerous children riding on the public school buses with her in Tampa, Fla. That’s when talent showcased her skills to anxious peers wanting her gift in their hands.

“There I was, on the bus, while we went over bump after bump, drawing,” said Bensch while plopping up and down in a dining room chair to reenact the scene from those bouncy bus rides. “As I drew my pictures, the other kids would say, ‘Wow, will you draw picture for me?’ Mostly, I drew lots of unicorns.’’

Such was the life of this gifted artist when she was about 8. Now, at 41, talent has proven her gift is a present to people who appreciate the places her passions are taking her, stroke by stroke.

Art reigns at her home – the canvas of her life. Here, oils, acrylics, and watercolors are among the mediums she uses to punctuate the spirit and personality of her family. There doesn’t seem to be an inch of space that hasn’t been taken higher by her forte fire.

The places her daughters slumber showcase Bensch’s brilliant and bold images that make visitors feel they are walking into art galleries, not bedrooms.

If you step into 10-year-old Hailey’s room, you’ll discover her life is a jungle. A lion, green tree python, lemur, giraffe, baboons, and an elephant are among the animals looking at anyone who enters in this idyllic space.

An aquatic realm dominates 16-year-old Elody’s room, where Moorish idol fish swim peacefully through barrier reef as a shark travels nearby.

The distinctively girlie room belongs to 12-year-old Sophie, whose walls are pale pink and shell white with a crown and other princess motifs painted onto them.

Even their cats, Zacky and Puck, both of which are potty trained, have a downstairs bathroom beautified by a faux stone mural featuring a floral urn and creeping morning glories. Their dog, Gracie, is housebroken but not potty trained. Still, she moseys in and out of the cats’ rustic restroom as she pleases.

Nothing tangible is safe from Bensch’s imaginative mind.

“When you are an artist, you can’t help but create things,” Bensch said. “You’ll see something beautiful, and you want to recreate it in your own way. Or, you will see something that can be beautiful and discover ways to make it beautiful.”

Currently, she is working on capturing the childhood memories of Ruth Reames, a 56-year-old pianist and organist at First Baptist Church of Georgetown. Bensch is incorporating quaint images found along the Sampit River into the piece.

“I like the way she puts colors in her work that you don’t usually see. She will put turquoise accents on trees, or yellow accents in water,” said Reames, who is into the art.

As an illustrator of books for children and adults, Bensch (pronounced bench) captures the exact visions authors conceive.

“She can take what I say and make my ideas come to life,” said Peggy Wheeler-Crib, a 70-year-old Pawleys Island children’s author who chose Bensch to illustrate all but one of her books. “She is very talented, and she is a free spirit, which is what I like about her.”

South Carolina became home to Bensch’s abilities to turn drab into fab and monochromatic dreams into vivid visions when she arrived to attend Converse College on scholarship. The goal then, or so she thought, was to become a physical therapist. In her brunette head, she knew physical therapy would pay her more money than art. So, she ventured into the world but discovered the career wasn’t the kind she wanted. It was then that she finally surrendered to talent’s call and pursued what she knew God had given her to share.

“I had to stop telling God that the talent he gave me wasn’t a real job, and that I didn’t see it as a career,” Bensch said. “I had to pursue my art. It was a leap of faith.”

Bensch’s husband, David, a residential contractor, discovered the depth of her talent while they were dating. It was then that the woman who would be his wife gave his white pineapple lamp a needed transformation.

“It was in 1995, and she came over to my place with paints,” said David Bensch, 49, of the pineapple lamp that is now a fixture in Hailey’s room. “I sat on the couch and watched television, and she sat on the floor and began painting. She finished over two nights. She made my pineapple lamp look like a real pineapple.”

Since then, Bensch has painted furniture for businesses, clients, charities, and friends. Her work makes them weak for more.

“April has so much creativity oozing from her that it amazes me,” said Bernadette Delgado, 56, and owner of MISC Everything Murrells Inlet, an art gallery that also sells handmade gifts. “There is nothing the girl can’t do.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Artist brings joy, love within her frames."