Ritchie A. Bensen was born in Los Angeles, CA and studied at Art Center School. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society, along with the California Watercolor Society. Ritchie A. Bensen grew up in the Los Angeles area during the World War II era. By the later 1950s, he was studying watercolor painting and by the 1960s was exhibiting on a national level. He spent a great deal of time painting along the California coast and was most interested in producing works which pictured boats and harbor scenes. His watercolors were sold through the Challis Gallery in Laguna Beach and through art association exhibition sales. Although he continued to paint occasionally in Southern California, most of Bensen's later works were done in Mendocino, California, or farther north in Washington state where he spent a lot of time painting on the beaches and in the harbors.

Born in 1941, Ritchie Benson's creative work was primarily influenced by the 1960s. Historically set in the context of the Cold War, the 1960s symbolize an extremely influential era which generated an important number of disruptions and challenged the order of all things. In Europe, The Iron Curtain and the Berlin wall would eternally mark people and beliefs, while in the U.S, events such as the Cuban missile crisis and Vietnam war would forever impact generations to come. From education to gender issues and ideologies, a re-definition of social standards in Western society ensued, with revolutionary philosophies and movements emerging in a cradle of inventiveness. Simplicity and an void of emotions were key concepts in the highly influential movement of Minimalism, represented by artists like Frank Stella, Donald Judd and Agnes Martin. Uninterested in the gestural elements of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist artists focused on producing artworks mainly gathering polished, clean lines and geometrical elements. Exploring further into some of the concepts inherent to Abstract Expressionism, artists like Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler practiced Color Field Painting – decidedly relating to Minimalism, with an essentially ruled-based approach, emptied of any emotional aspect. Several schools of philosophy profoundly influenced creatives, Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti were artists heavily seduced by the ideologies of Existentialism, who achieved worldwide fame through their depiction of the human form and the anguish often associated with the human condition. globally, an important number of art movements resonated with the radical changes of the 1960s, often prone to their own regional distinctions. In Italy, Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni created Spatialism, while in Germany, the Zero group embraced similar ideas under the leadership of Günther Uecker. His  paintings and watercolors are held in many private and public collections throughout the world.