Helen Benton has enjoyed a successful dress-design business since 1986, creating fashions for celebrities and prominent families nationwide, as well as for wives of several Arkansas governors. In 2011, she and her husband, Bill, retired to Heber Springs, where she continued her business, Helen Benton Designs, on a limited basis.
More recently, she has been using her artistic talents to create abstract paintings, many of which recently graced the walls of the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock.
Benton was recognized as a Mansion Artist in Residence on Sept. 22 at a reception at the mansion, where her work was on display for several weeks. Gov. Asa Hutchinson and his wife, Susan, both attended the reception.
“Helen, your artwork means so much to me,” the governor said. “I enjoy being able to roam these halls … and be able to see the incredible art that is hanging here, … looking at the colors … how alive they are.
“Art is a way to reflect, to think inwardly. Every human being needs to do that,” he said.
“Thank you for letting us enjoy [your artwork],” Hutchinson told Benton.
Hutchinson told the audience, “I encourage you all to make sure art is a big part of your life.”
Susan Hutchinson said she is “very thankful for Helen and her artwork.”
“I first met her when she and Bill showed us their hospitality in their home in Heber Springs,” Susan Hutchinson said. “I saw her artwork, and she started talking to us. I thought, ‘This is the most interesting, most illusionary artwork.’ … It really spoke to me.
“She let us look around. She had more drawings — drawings of dresses she had designed in her previous life. She had designed exquisite dresses … and sold them in New York and for Vera Wang. She had designed gowns for this first lady and for that first lady.
“She was in the wing [for me] … just in case Asa won the governor’s race,” Susan Hutchinson said, laughing.
“I asked her to design my inaugural gown,” she said. “She painted it (the gown) for all to see, with its glorious red background and the black and white dress with the mink and velvet and old white lace.
“She is a fine, fine Southern lady, but she is a steel magnolia. … She is strong and perseveres,” Susan Hutchinson said. “She is still creative.”
Benton also designed the first lady’s dress for her husband’s swearing-in ceremony.
Taking the podium, Benton said, “I am amazed and completely overwhelmed by this reception,” which was held in the Janet Huckabee Grand Hall of the Governor’s Mansion.
“I was asked several months ago to display my art here in the Governor’s Mansion,” Benton said. “I was so honored, but I also wondered, ‘Why me? Why would anyone, even my closest friends, want to come here on a Thursday afternoon and see my art?’ And then I look out there and see all of you.
“I believe my talent is a God-given talent. I was an apparel designer. I loved designing. It afforded me many opportunities.
“But … I had a brain tumor and had surgery that left me deaf and not able to do my designing. I started again … started painting in total ignorance. … I had no idea how to paint on a canvas.”
Benton told the audience that she has learned to “persevere regardless of circumstances.”
“Be all you can be,” she said. “Create all you can create to show the beauty of God.”
Benton, who said she is “old enough to have plenty of experience but young enough to want new adventures,” was born in Jackson, Tennessee. She graduated from Helena High School and attended one year of college at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, and one year at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
She and her husband have three children — Bill Benton Jr. of Memphis, Murray Benton Sr. of Jonesboro and Dorothy Benton Lagarde of Covington, Louisiana. The couple have three grandsons and five granddaughters.
“I always loved to design my own clothes and my daughter’s, but never thought of having a business,” Benton said. “I became interested in sewing when my daughter was born. My grandmother taught me how to do French hand-sewing, and I took lessons in clothing construction and pattern making.”
The Bentons lived in Helena before retiring to Heber Springs.
“My design business was there,” she said. “At one time, I had 21 women sewing for me in my shop there. I started my business, selling wedding dresses, first at Bergdorf Goodman and Vera Wang in New York City, then expanded, selling at Saks, Neiman Marcus and other high-end bridal shops around the country.”
Her client list included actresses Kim Basinger and Tracy Gold, the daughter of violinist Itzhak Perlman, members of the Kennedy family, Hillary Clinton and the wives of Arkansas governors Jim Guy Tucker, Mike Huckabee and Asa Hutchinson.
In the early 1990s, Benton noticed a change in her hearing.
“I informed my daughter, who had just received her master’s degree in deaf education, that I could not hear well in my left ear. She immediately sent me to a specialist in New Orleans, who confirmed that I had a brain tumor, and he referred me to a very famous doctor in Nashville, Tennessee, who specialized in this field,” Benton said.
“He removed a benign tumor in 1993, leaving me completely deaf in my left ear. I also have hearing loss in my right ear. Because of not being able to hear fire alarms in hotels, cab drivers speaking and general loss of hearing, I could not travel alone. My family and I decided that I would scale down my business, so at that time, I started painting,” she said.
“My former years of blending colors, shapes and design with fabric helped me begin to create abstract art, which I loved,” Benton said. “I have used all mediums, but mostly acrylic because it dries faster. I have an art studio in my home, but I paint my very large canvasses in my carport.
“I sell my art by word of mouth. I will be continuing to paint and design on a very limited basis. Actually, there is a very exciting event that I will be working on in the spring, but plans are not final yet, so I will just wait until then to announce it.”