Archive for the technique Category

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They Might be Giants

Posted in abstract, Art, art on paper, expressionism, expressionist, figurative, gesture, monotype, narrative art, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , on February 9, 2012 by Tom Bennett

Unless you’ve been having a pedicure under a rock the last few days, you’ll know the football NY Giants beat the NE Patriots to win the superbowl for the 2nd time in 4 years. Without going into an analysis of the season and the game itself and bore most of you, I’ll just say, as a New Yorker, this team is cardiac-arrest-fun with its habit of coming back from the dead and pulling out a win at the last minute.

Mario Manningham came up with, arguably perhaps, the game-changing catch along the sideline. The play was expressionist in its execution.

Tom Bennett

Uploaded with [URL=http://imageshack.us]ImageShack.us[/URL]
Manningham, monotype, 20′ x 16″

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The Fat and the Thin in the Corner

Posted in Art, art on paper, expressionism, expressionist, figurative, mixed media, monotype, nude, oil painting, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on February 2, 2012 by Tom Bennett

More paintings made from monotypes. These two pieces I finished a couple of days ago and I’m of two minds about them. The first, In the Corner, may be a tad too defined in the figure. I’m not sure I’m pushing the abstraction enough. The second painting I’m on the fence about as well. How’s that for mixed metaphor cliches?

Tom Bennett

In the Corner

In the Corner, oil over monotype on paper, 28″ x 20″

The Fat and the Thin

The Fat and the Thin, oil over monotype on paper, 20″ x 16″

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Hidden Defect and Lauren’s Underbelly

Posted in abstract, Art, art on paper, expressionism, expressionist, figurative, mixed media, monotype, nude, oil painting, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2012 by Tom Bennett

Two more explorations in the current series. The one called Lauren’s Underbelly got its title from the happy little fact that the underpainting/monotype was a portrait of a pregnant woman. She apparently gave birth to this painting. It’s a girl!

Hidden Defect
Hidden Defect, oil into monotype on paper, 22′ x 16″

Lauren's Underbelly
Lauren’s Underbelly, oil into monotype on paper, 18″ x 12″

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Ectoplasmic Monotype/Painting

Posted in abstract, Art, art on paper, expressionism, expressionist, figurative, mixed media, monotype, nude, oil painting, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2012 by Tom Bennett

This piece has a photographic feel and Kodak is on its death bed. That’s a sad thought.

Ektachromoplasm

Ektachromoplasm, oil over monotype on paper, 20″ x 16″

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Basement in Baltimore

Posted in abstract, Art, art on paper, figurative, monotype, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 12, 2012 by Tom Bennett

I’ve been in Baltimore caring for my parents for a week and have been painting in the basement of the house I’m staying in. Here are some of the results.
I had the opportunity to take advantage of my father Harry’s experienced eye for design. He’s 92 years old. I asked him what he thought of the 1st piece below while I was still working through unresolved stages. He looked at it, covered an area with his hand and said, “get rid of this shape. These things don’t mean anything.” A title was born.

Tom Bennett

These Things Don't Mean Anything

These Things Don’t Mean Anything, oil on monotpye, paper, 18″ x9″

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Below, I’ve posted a photo of an original monotype and the subsequent over-painting.

First stage: Original monotype on paper
Stage 1: figure 1993

figure 1993, monotype,

Final stage:
stage 2: figure 1.11.12

Figure 1-11-12, oil on paper, 2012,

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First Two Stages

Posted in abstract, Art, art on paper, Drawing, expressionism, expressionist, figurative, mixed media, monotype, nude, oil painting, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , on January 5, 2012 by Tom Bennett

Photos of the first stages of the process I’m exploring with these current reworked monotypes-to-paintings.
The monotype is an ancient relic from the early 90′s. Drawing over the image and reintegrating the underlying forms with the new marks, I then bring in paint of varying viscosities with brush and knife. The recontextualization of form may be overtly reconsidered or more likely metamorphosizes ‘organically’ (for lack of better pompous phrasing). Here much of the original is obliterated yet structurally the new image is recognizably built on form that is now rendered abstract. I’m away from my studio this week and won’t be reworking this until I get back, so this current unresolved stage will have to ferment like a soft wheel of gouda, also known as my head.

 

stage1male-female-1.jpg

 

 

 

stage2male-female.jpg stage 2

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Nice and Easy

Posted in Art, art on paper, expressionism, figurative, mixed media, monotype, nude, oil painting, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on December 22, 2011 by Tom Bennett

When taking monotypes and working back into them with other media, I intend to allow the under-print to be an integral part of the process and have a dialogue with the fresh mark making. With this piece I fear I have pushed to far with the paint and the literal form. The most overt area revealing the print is the space on the right with amorphous cell-like blobs. That said, I like the spotty abstracted relationships and may accept this as sort of a red-headed step child, even though she’s a brunette.

Tom Bennett

Wrong Turn

Nice and Easy, oil on monotype, rives bfk paper, 20″ x 16″

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Submissive

Posted in Art, figurative, monotype, nude, oil painting, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , on October 20, 2011 by Tom Bennett

This is pending sale, pending on spending.

Submissive

Submissive, Oil over monotype on printmaking paper, 20″ x 16″

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Sketches for Painting

Posted in abstract expressionism, Art, art on paper, Drawing, figurative, homage, mixed media, nude, oil painting, Painting, sculpture, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , on August 25, 2011 by Tom Bennett

One of the many themes I’ve worked on over the years is the male figure; in particular the male back, often inspired by classical painting and sculpture. I find The heightened muscular forms and volumes of figures created by renaissance and baroque artists like Michelangelo, Bandinelli and Caravaggio great subjects for abstraction and distortion. Many of the details of figures from antiquity, when looked at with an open perspective create vast conceptual worlds of abstracted landscape and space.

Here I’m making loose color studies as an exploration for larger finished pieces. Its an exercise in balancing control and accident on the way to discovering expressive formal, emotive and metaphysical paths. I’ve included an older oil painting I created years ago in Spain as one of the first forays into this area. It was based on sketches and watercolors I had done from a sculpture of Neptune in the Piazza Signoria in Florence.

herc

Herc, mixed media on paper, 12″ x 9″

signoria

Signoria, mixed media, 12″ x 9″

Barcelona Neptune, 1986, oil on canvas

Barcelona Neptune, 1986, oil on canvas, 48″ x 36″

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Making Art is All About the 4 year-old.

Posted in "But Is It Art?", Art, art on paper, Drawing, gesture, mixed media, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , on June 30, 2011 by Tom Bennett

I’m tired and when I’m tired I throw stuff down on paper and slop it around, pretending that my subconscious has something to do with the chaotic garbage that is left.

But is it art?

Humans are full of sh*t , huh?

PIG, mixed media on paper, 11″ x 7″

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Monotypes from Life, Indirectly

Posted in Art, art on paper, Drawing, figurative, gesture drawing, monotype, nude, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on May 19, 2011 by Tom Bennett

To be clear, if one is making a monotype from life, working from a an inanimate subject like a still life doesn’t pose many problems. working from a live landscape is more challenging in that one requires a press(if one is using a press) to be nearby, and working from the live model is only problematic if the model becomes uncomfortable since the process can be a stop and start, dragged out thing. The monotypes below were made from life “once removed”, in that I drew the model in a sketchbook first and then created the monos from the drawings.

Tom Bennett

Rex and Rabbit 1

Rex and Rabbit 1, monotype, 16″ x20″

Rex and Rabbit 2

Rex and Rabbit 2, monotype, 16″ x 20″

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Abduction and Marriage

Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, homage, narrative art, nude, oil painting, Painting, rape, technique, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress with tags , , , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2011 by Tom Bennett

Rubens’s Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus confronts the viewer with an interpretative dilemna. The composition illustrates the story recounted by Theocritus and Ovid of how the twin brothers Castor and Pollux (called the Dioscuri) forcibly abducted and later married the daughters of King Leucippus. Rubens’s depiction of the abduction is marked by some striking ambiguities: an equivocation between violence and solicitude in the demeanor of the brothers, and an equivocation between resistance and gratification in the response of the sisters. The energized ebullience and sensual appeal of the group work to override our darker thoughts about the coercive nature of the abduction.

I’ve decided to take this painting and place it in another ambiguous and disconnected space, distorting much of the narrative and for lack of a better cliché, recontextualizing. At this late stage it still needs some tweeking and resolution of various passages.

Tom Bennett

Daughters, 1st stage, oil on panel, 18" x 24"

Sisters, oil on panel, 24″ x 30″

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Stage 2 of a Figurative to Abstract Painting

Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, homage, male nude, oil painting, Painting, technique, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress with tags , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2011 by Tom Bennett

This week I’m posting a current stage in an ongoing metamorphosis of a painting influenced by Caravaggio’s Crucifixion of St Peter. I’m trying to find the place where the abstract marks camoflage any overt figurative narrative. I’ve been working here with oil, oil stick; a 3 part medium made of damar, turps and stand oil; and black oil medium, made with litharge. The black oil creates a really beautiful, deep and strong paint film and glaze.

I’ll be the first to admit this is a mediocre photo.

St Peter stage 2

Pete’s Going Away, oil on panel, 40″ x 30″

St Peter stage 2

Detail

Here’s the original Caravaggio, so he doesn’t sue me:

St Peter

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Testing…1…2…3…

Posted in Art, technique, Toni Tiller with tags , , , , , on February 23, 2011 by Toni Tiller

My attitude seems to slowly be turning around about this whole making art thing, I still don’t have any to show today but at least I started working on something again. Lots of good advice was offered for getting out of this rut and it is all slowly starting to shift things around. After being re-reminded that a great place to begin is with playing with the materials, and after spending some time on one of my favorite website resources, Thistothat.com, I started doing some glue tests. I’ve never tried to glue paper to fabric, and ultimately I was looking for something the would adhere well, remain flexible, and not wrinkle the paper. Two of the websites major recommendations were unavailable, one being from Japan (fair enough), and the other was the one and only product completely sold out at Home Depot (really?) so some blind substitution guesses were made.

First up, a German glue called Uhu Twist and Stick. It was a liquid so my hopes were limited, but it *said* it could glue paper to fabric and it got good online reviews so…complete failure. Wrinkles and curling. Next.

Same company, but in a stick!

Clean adhesion, no wrinkles, not the strongest bond in the world, but definitely a contender. How about so good old fashioned rubber cement?

On the plus side, there was good adhesion and no wrinkling, on the other hand it’s messy and there is some color rubbing in the center that I suspect is related to the alcohol (?) in the glue. I also tied some gold size just because I had it lying around but it gave more or less the same results as the first glue. In the end it seems some combination of the stick and the rubber cement are the way to go. This was also my first evening going back upstairs to the studio instead of trying to work in my very comfy, but very small bedroom, so my favorite part of this process was being able to get up and not clean anything up.

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Baby Boomer Remorse

Posted in Art, figurative, homage, oil painting, Painting, technique, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress with tags , , , , , , , on December 23, 2010 by Tom Bennett

I know that posting unfinished works might be seen as a tad unprofessional, a bit unheroic or at the very least a teensy weensy questionable for any number of reasons. But I don’t give a rat’s ass. I have no new finished work this week and rather than posting old stuff I’ll do the clumsy yet fun and exciting thing and put up an example of an unresolved question mark in the form of oil on board.
I apologize for the mediocre photo, but then again it is a W.I.P.
The image is informed by a Caravaggio.

At this stage the form is too narrative. I think broader abstraction will be brought in.

As a representative of the tail-ass-end of the post war natal boom cycle, I have a touch of guilt about the fact that the “me” generation sort of selfishly consumed its way toward the recent economic downturn. This painting may be about that shame. Or at the very least, the fear of not being able to consume more stuff because you’re about to get nailed to a cross.

Unfinished WIP: baby boomer remorse

oil on enameled board with oil stick and graphite, 30″ x 40″

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Hermit

Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, homage, monotype, nude, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , on November 11, 2010 by Tom Bennett

Hermits are weirdos and kinda fun to think about. I’ve been living like one on and off for the last few weeks, that is, when I’m not being excessively extroverted. When I’m working, painting, designing, or illustrating – I’m in my hermit head.

These are two one-off prints inspired by a typically odd Rubens: “Hermit and Angelica.” The symbolism and allegory in the original is ripe with sex, potential violence and redemption. In my versions the hermit is such a cypher he’s really not there at all.

hermit & angelica #1

Hermit and Angelica #1, monotype, 12″ x 18″

Hermit and Angelica #2

Hermit and Angelica #2, monotype, 12′ x 18″

The Rubens:

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Its all Uphill

Posted in Art, art on paper, homage, monotype, oil painting, Painting, printmaking, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2010 by Tom Bennett

Another homage to the classic old geniuses of antiquity. Titian was a profound influence on his contemporaries of the Italian Renaissance as well as future generations of western painters. His fluid painterly approach to mark making in oil is wonderful.

Sisyphus is of course a well-known mythological symbol of hubris being punished by eternal frustration. The constant rock carrying uphill only to see it tumble back down may be an apt sign of the current political climate in this country. I’m happily sisyphus-free myself.

Sisyphus (after Titian)

Sisyphus (after Titian), monotype, 9″ x 12″

click here for the original by the old Italian:
Titian

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The Interior of My Head in the Tunnel

Posted in Art, Drawing, figurative, gesture, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , on July 1, 2010 by Tom Bennett

drawings from the subway cars and the subway platform.

28b

25b

28a

28c

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Mark Tansey: The Conflict of an Ambiguous Narrative

Posted in Art, figurative, oil painting, Painting, Photography, technique, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , on June 6, 2010 by Tom Bennett

Mark Tansey may at first glance appear smugly ironic, but has a fascinatingly subtle subversiveness to his thinking. He is nothing if not an extremely thoughtful painter, as well as a technically superior one. He understands that representation and narrative are very complex things. His paintings are also as much about post modern criticism as they are about art and painting. Here is an illuminating text on his work by a professor of the arts and philosophy, Mark Taylor.

Tom Bennett

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Virility, Sterility, Puerility. Andro Pause is Coming to Town.

Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, male nude, monotype, nude, portrait, Psychology, technique, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags , , , , , , , on May 13, 2010 by Tom Bennett

I’m continuing this series of the male figure. Here’s a new word I came across: Andropause. I find this an amusing attempt by some to excoriate the more complex feminine process of midlife aging. As a member of the male gender class, I admit we are the weaker sex emotionally, psychologically and, considering our place in the biosphere, physically. Lets face it, men are deep down scared shitless. That’s why we bluster and play the the macho door-busting hero. The Male mid-life crisis might as well be call boyopause.

Tom Bennett

Midmorning Crisis

Midmorning Crisis,  2010, monotype, 20″ x 16″

larger image after the jump

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