La Casa del Arte

Having been raised by a family of artists and teachers, Benjamin Groff has been an artist since grade school and has been teaching art in the public schools for over 19 years.
Mr. Groff studied art at the York Academy of Art in Pennsylvania and graduated from Millersville University in 1986. He worked in advertising for five years at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, while also establishing the Velvet Monkey Gallery in Daytona Beach. His paintings have been displayed in local art galleries and art shows in Lancaster, PA, Daytona Beach, FL and Miami. Mr. Groff’s art can also be found in private collections throughout the United States as well as in France, Spain, and Sweden.
Since graduating from Florida International University with a Master of Science in Art Education in 1993, Mr. Groff has continued to produce work for The Ed Fund, Art in Public Places: The Flamingos on the Beach in 2002, The 2004 Masters Mystery Art Show at the Ritz Carlton, Arts for Learning (A4L), Art Miami 2008, Art Basel 2010, and he has directed seven works for the FIU Wolfsonian Museum Page at a Time Program.

B. 1939, Wheeling, WV. Brenda Goodhue Swain studied Elementary Education at Millersville University in the late 1950's and early 1960's. She developed an interest in portraiture and then pursued a part-time career in lettering and sign painting. After marrying Robert Swain in 1972, Brenda continued to work in lettering and promotional items. During the 1980's she focused on the illustration of historic buildings in Pennsylvania until her death in 1991.

Robert or Bob, grew up in Berlin NJ. He was the son of a pharmacist and his mother was a commercial artist. After high school Robert attended the Philadelphia College of Art before joining the U.S. Army where he became Second Lieutenant during the Second World War and the Korean War. Meanwhile, Robert A. Swain moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and began working for the Godfrey Advertising Agency. Bob became Art Director in the late 1960's and continued to work at Godfrey for over 50 years until his death in 1997. During his "non-working" hours Bob pursued illustrating various historical buildings throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania most notably in the Chadds Ford area where his work was sold at the Brandywine River Museum. In the late 1980's he began focusing mainly on the illustration of steam trains as he volunteered at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg and became the unofficial train artist of the museum through the mid 1990's. Bob loved the challenge of capturing the very essence of his subjects by meticulously studying and rendering every detail.

I believe that my work is never truly final. Through constant experimentation and research, I seek to develop new techniques that evoke a wide range of reactions from the viewer. I wish to expand the viewer's palette of appreciation and interest by pushing traditional boundaries beyond the realm of predisposition into the unknown.