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Paul Bennett
Degree: BA Hons Fine Art
University: Surrey Institute of Art and Design
Graduation Year: 1998
Paul Bennett is an exciting painter, he has been selling consistently well since graduation and it’s easy to see why. He creates engaging paintings, intimate but isolated, rife with ambiguity. Critically his canvases are also well made objects - he uses high quality materials so the archival properties are sound. He makes perfect brooding seascapes to cocoon with over the long winter ahead. Intense, atmospheric, raw, vulnerable and yet disarming, remote but abstract, Bennett creates beautiful, engaging paintings.
“I specialise in Figurative and Seascape paintings using oils on canvas. The two themes are very different in mood and style, but both are made from using traditional techniques and both rely on drawing from memory to create finished work that is abstracted and more expressional than representational.
One of my major concerns, when painting the figure, is to create a sense of intimacy between the viewer and the painting. I want the experience to feel slightly detached and by doing so create tension and awareness. The figure is slightly stylised and displaced in a way that provokes the spectator to engage directly with the subject. It then leaves the viewer to interpret what they will from the painting and take away their own ideas on what they have experienced.
Having the figure situated on a flat space or background encourages the sensation of being isolated or intimate. The space is devoid of any pictorial representation and should translate as nothing more than coloured paint on a surface. The process I use when working on the figure has a strong influence on how a painting will transpire, as there is an element of unpredictability. The random uncertainty of the paint drips and splatters can completely dictate how a painting will evolve and eventually be finished.
The seascapes I create are influenced from exploring some of the more isolated wildernesses along the U.K.'s coastline - the still air devoid of sound apart from the waves hitting the beach. The bleak is balanced with the wild. I attempt to capture these shores with the use of layers of thick oil paint, paint splatters and the use of the brush and palette knife. The sky is interpreted as sweeping blues and yellows/greys and brings contrast to the composition. The final work is slightly abstracted, but I aim to maintain the sense of being remote.”
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EXHIBITIONS
WESTON PARK
SEASCAPES & ABSTRACTS
2nd Jan, 2012 – The Granary Gallery, Shropshire
GIFTED @ MARBURAE GALLERY
SEASCAPES
Marburae House, 6 Athey Street,
Macclesfield, Cheshire
15th December, 2011 – 8th January, 2012
VZ GALLERY
SEASCAPES, ABSTRACTS AND PORTRAIT
28, Cheshire Street (off Brick Lane), London
1st – 15th December, 2011
EDINBURGH ART FAIR
SEASCAPES
The Corn Exchange
18th to 20th November, 2011
AFFORDABLE ART FAIRS
SEASCAPES & ABSTRACTS
London – Battersea - w/ the Lighthouse Gallery
London – Hampstead – w/ the Lighthouse Gallery
Singapore – w/ the F.A. Gallery
October & November, 2011
TIGHNABRUAICH GALLERY
SEASCAPES
October, 2011 – Tighnabruaich, Scotland
MANCHESTER ART FAIR
SEASCAPES & PORTRAIT
Quay House, Quay Street, off Spinningfields, Manchester
28th October, 2011
THE ARCHITECTS GALLERY
SEASCAPES & ABSTRACTS
29th Sept, 2011 – The Architects Gallery, Middlesex
SUMMER SHOW
SEASCAPES
July – August, 2011 – The Lighthouse Gallery, Cornwall
COAST TO COAST
SEASCAPES
June – July, 2011 – The Wey Gallery, Surrey
UNINVISABLE
PORTRAIT
June, 2011 – The Lowry Hotel, Manchester
Desire @ the portman gallery
SEASCAPES
May, 2011 – Chelsea Town Hall, London
CHELSEA ART FAIR
SEASCAPES
April, 2011 – Chelsea Town Hall, London
F.A. GALLERY
SEASCAPES
March, 2011 – Taipei City, Taiwan
DEBUT CONTEMPORARY
PORTRAIT
March, 2011 – Notting Hill, London
HIDDEN PORTRAITS
PORTRAIT
January, 2011 – View Gallery, Bristol
86 ST JAMES’S STREET
SEASCAPES
February, 2011 – Pall Mall, London
RAC WINTER SHOW
SEASCAPES
Winter, 2010 – Pall Mall, London
ART FAIRS
SEASCAPES
Autumn, 2010 – Affordable Art Fair, Battersea, London – Manchester Art Fair – Edinburgh Art Fair
TIGHNABRUAICH GALLERY
SEASCAPES
September, 2010 – Tighnabruaich, Scotland
ZUMA
SEASCAPES
September, 2010 – Brigton
BAYS AND BEACHES
SEASCAPES
Lighthouse Gallery
August, 2010 – Penzance, Cornwall
OPEN SPACE GALLERIES
SEASCAPES & PORTRAIT
July 16, 2010 – Penryn, Cornwall
BRISTOL ART FAIR
SEASCAPES & PORTRAIT
May 14, 2010 – Bristol
ARTSPACE 2010
PORTRAIT
May 8, 2010 – Henley-on-Thames
GRANGER GALLERY
SEASCAPES
December, 2009 – Whitstable
CHAMELEON GALLERY
PORTRAIT
November, 2009 – Brighton
LAUDERDALE HOUSE
PORTRAIT
April, 2009 – Archway, London
HUMAN @ THE ART LOUNGE
PORTRAIT
June, 2009 – The Mailbox, Birmingham
NEW BLOOD ART
PORTRAIT
November, 2008 – Chiswick, London
DIESEL HOUSE
PORTRAIT
March, 2008 – Kew, London