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Bennett, Andrew (1956-) AUS (21)

Category: PAINTERS

BennettAVAndrew Bennett is a contemporary Australian Artist who works primarily in acrylics on canvas. His interest in painting began in late high school, when his early studies of perspective and still life studies won the Sydney Morning Heral Art Heritage Prize in 1983.

He began university studies in physics 1984, but soon switched to fine arts, majoring in painting and photography at the City Institue of Art (now known as College of Fine Arts, UNSW).

Since graduating in 1987, Andrew has pursued his career as a full-time artist, exhibiting regularly in Sydney, Melbourne and the Central Coast. His works are held in numerous Australian and International collections in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Canada.

Travelling extensively throughout his career, Andrew has consistenly sought to draw together subject matter from a variety of sources, reflective of his fascination with light, texture, perspective and ideas.

''When I first took up a brush I had some early influences - artists such as Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, and Wayne Thiebaud .Their sense of space, light and composition appealed to me. There was also a sense of capturing their environments what caught my eye.

In the early years, I developed an interest in still life painting, which was a way for me to come to terms with the medium of paint. Over time, I progressively expanded the close, intimate space of still life to incorporate the concept of landscape in a single work. The process enabled me to create layers, a sense of immediate and distant perspective.

Using this perspective I created a stream of work, combining close up observation of still life with the grander sweeping issues involved in representing landscape. This allowed me to explore the possible thematic and aesthetic relationships between the viewer's immediate space, occupied by still life, and the more atmospheric and distant space that landscape encompass.

However after some time I came to realise that the possibilities for using this format to explore other conceptual ideas had great appeal for me.

What appeared to be a surrealist bent seemed to develop. Even though there often is some unconscious reference in some of my work, as surrealists such as Rene Magrite and Salvadore Dali explored, it is the conscious arrangement between all the elements that continue to fascinate me.

Each painting presents a slew of possible interactions to explore as I work the process from the initial inception, to the final rendition.

Throughout the application I strive to keep a sense of life in the work, that very hard to categorise element that one has to feel, perhaps even intuit rather than simply reason. It can be as simple as an unexpected placement in the composition or an addition or subtraction of another element that can bring a work to life."

 

J. Andrew Bennett - 20 Paintings
Andrew Bennett
ALARM ROUNDING THE NEEDLES
Andrew Bennett
THE SCHOONER YACHT AMERICA OFF THE NEEDLES DURING THE HUNDRED GUINEAS' CUP
Andrew Bennett
America's Cup 1885 Puritan (Foreground) v. Genesta
Andrew Bennett
The America's Cup - "Puritan" leading "Genesta" , 1885
Andrew Bennett
The America's Cup, 1885: Puritan racing Genesta
Andrew Bennett
America's Cup, 1887: Volunteer versus Thistle off the Sandy Hook Light Vessel
Andrew Bennett
The America's Cup, 1893: Vigiliant and Valkyrie (II) head to head
Andrew Bennett
Columbia racing Shamrock in the America's Cup, 1901
Andrew Bennett
Lulworth racing against Britannia and Shamrock
Andrew Bennett
Shamrock (V) and Lulworth racing off the Needles
Andrew Bennett
Endeavour and Yankee neck and neck in Weymouth Bay, 1934
Andrew Bennett
The 1934 America's Cup, Rainbow vs Endeavour
Andrew Bennett
Rounding the Needles, J Class Yachts, c. 1934
Andrew Bennett
Britannia, Endeavour and Velsheda in close quarters off Cowes, 1934
Andrew Bennett
ENDEAVOUR AND VELSHEDA RACING OFF THE ROYAL YACHT SQUADRON, COWES, 1934
Andrew Bennett
A tough slog to windward: Britannia racing 'J' class yachts in Weymouth Bay, 1934
Andrew Bennett
Well-matched: Yankee and Endeavour
Andrew Bennett
COWES WEEK, 1935: WESTWARD LEADING YANKEE AND VELSHEDA
Andrew Bennett
Cowes 1934 - "Endeavor", "Yankee" & "Velsheda" racing off the Royal Yacht Squadron
Andrew Bennett
J Class Yachts Velsheda, Endeavour and Yankee tacking ahead of Britannia, Solent, 1935

 

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