Artist Spotlight: Ben Cowan on Creating Sculptural Paintings with Aqua-Resin
July 15, 2025
As an artist-founded company, we’re deeply committed to supporting the creative community that makes Aqua-Resin what it is.
We’re excited to spotlight New York–based artist Ben Cowan, who builds sculptural surfaces for his paintings using Aqua-Resin.
Over the next month, Ben will share how Aqua-Resin fits into his process—offering insights into his work and the importance of material choice.
Follow along on his Instagram (@benbencowan) to learn more and access a special discount for our creative community.
bencowan.com | Instagram: @benbencowan | YouTube: @benbencowan
———————————————————————
Q & A with Ben Cowan
What inspires your work?
I really pull inspiration from all sorts of places, from the landscape, art history, religious research and practice, architecture, technical knowledge, and contemporary art shows. Recently I’ve been mining the online catalogs of art institutions, downloading small croppings of paintings I really like with a plan to put them in future paintings. Another huge source of inspiration is The Frame Blog. This has been a wonderful resource of knowledge about all things framing and has increased my vocabulary of an element of art making I don't think always gets people’s full attention.
Can you walk us through your creative process?
I feel like my creative process is a bit meandering and always changing. But one of the constants is recognizing patterns in the things I’m looking at and fixating on. I’ll ask myself, “How can I combine all these elements that interest me into a cohesive artwork that subtly communicates a personal narrative?” I try a few things, see what works, then ask “How can I make this more complicated?” I have those elements of inspiration rolling around in my head, and usually when I’m walking somewhere or in some other daydream state, an image forms in my head of what it would look like. I quickly draw it out with a few notes. That lives in my sketchbook for a while until I figure out a way to actually construct it. Sometimes it happens the next day, sometimes it's years later before it can manifest.
How did you discover Aqua-Resin?
I discovered Aqua-Resin through my friend Mark Joshua Epstein. He had been using some 2 part resins for coating his surfaces and needed an easier and less toxic solution, which led him to the Aqua Resin. For me, I began using it as a more permanent replacement to some plaster mixes I was using to finish wood frames. Then I learned it could be used as a casting material and it quickly replaced the plastic resins I had been experimenting with.
How do you use Aqua-Resin in your work?
For about the past 2 years, I’ve been making Aqua Resin casts from molds of my handmade shaped framed panels. I’m the type of person that can never stop tinkering though, and after taking an Aqua Resin workshop with Rand Hardy at the Art Students League earlier this year, I’ve been playing with a variety of new-to-me techniques. Processes like, combining partial castings, building more elaborate foam surfaces and hard coating with Aqua-Resin, even casting from various plastic surfaces I find in recycling.
What is your favorite way of using Aqua-Resin? Or what is your favorite Aqua-Resin technique?
My main use of Aqua-Resin is using it to make laminated casts of sculptural panels for paintings. What I’ve done is, first make a framed panel with a shaped opening from various materials in the studio like wood, foam, cardboard, paper, and plaster. Once I achieve the shapes and surfaces I like, I make a silicone mold. Then the Aqua-Resin is applied in lasagna like layers using Aqua-Veil fiberglass to the inside of the mold. When it’s all set, voila! A copy of the original in a stable, paintable material.
What made you choose Aqua-Resin over other materials?
I very much think of myself as a painter, and I’m dipping my toes into the world of sculptural techniques. I started casting frames about 7 years ago with the hope it would simplify and speed up my framing of many smaller paintings. This turned into several months of trial and error and learning a lot of new chemistry, and studio days of being completely perplexed by various results. Aqua-Resin is a material that is pretty straight forward, has few bizarre chemical interactions, is easily paintable, and isn’t toxic. This seems like a winning combination!
Do you have a favorite tool or setup for working with Aqua-Resin?
One of the beautiful things about Aqua-Resin is its simplicity. Most of my tools are just basic brushes, mixing tools, and recycled yogurt cups. My silicone molds are an indispensable part of how I’m creating the Aqua-Resin surfaces though. I’ve made a nice “library” of various molds that I use for making my painting panels.
What is your must-have item in the studio?(besides Aqua-Resin)
This was kind of a stumper question. I use a lot of different tools and items throughout my process, cameras, vinyl cutter, projector, table saw, not to mention all the paint. But when I thought, what’s the one thing I always have and carry with me, it would have to be my sketch book. I’ve had a robust sketchbook practice for many years. I use it to doodle, observe, and mostly flesh out ideas for future work. It’s become the well I draw from when I need an idea, or to see the bigger picture of how the individual artworks thread together. You could think of it as a picture journal.
———————————————————————
Ben Cowan was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from Indiana University. The artist can be spotted examining plants and buildings as he walks to and from his studio in Brooklyn, New York. Occupationally, Cowan has worked in the studio of Jeff Koons and presently as a Scenic Artist for motion pictures, both roles have increased Cowan’s resolve for refined painting techniques, experimentation with process, and a keen eye for illusions. In his work, Cowan draws inspiration from urban landscapes and gothic architecture, blending observed places, personal objects, and religious abstractions to create paintings that bridge reality and illusion, personifying the interpersonal and the supernatural.
Cowan’s work has been shown in solo and group shows throughout the United States including New York City’s Deanna Evans Projects, 550 Gallery, The Painting Center, and Spring Break Art Show. He has been featured by Manifest Gallery’s International Painting Annual and The Brooklyn Review, and also mentioned in articles from cultbytes.com, The Wall Street Journal, and Vice.com. Cowan’s work is in private and public collections including The University of Scranton, Ann Arbor District Library in Michigan, and The Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY.