Working for the man much of this week so…..
Retrograde march down the halls of the past!
This is an oil painting I made of my dad Harry from the 20th century. (1998)
Portrait of Harry Bennett, 1998, oil on canvas, 20″ x 30″
Archive for harry bennett
Portrait from the Archives
Posted in Art, figurative, Harry Bennett, oil painting, Painting, portrait, Tom Bennett with tags Archives, Art, harry bennett, oil on canvas, Painting, portrait, Tom Bennett on August 11, 2011 by Tom BennettAn Ex-Soldier and Painting
Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, Harry Bennett, homage, nude, oil painting, Painting, plein air, Tom Bennett with tags abstract, Art, figure, harry bennett, homage, landscape, memorial day, Painting, plein air, Tom Bennett, Towson, world war 2 on June 2, 2011 by Tom BennettI’m spending a week care-taking my parents. My father Harry painted through memorial day weekend.
Harry was a reconnaissance officer in the south pacific throughout World War 2. Rarely talks about it nor his bronze star medal for bravery. He is a very special man.
His painting above. oil on board, 16″ x 20″ He may still want to tweak it a little. I think he should call it Memorial Day.
Mom and Dad.
I realized how much I miss talking painting with him and his thoughtful insight. He took a look at a painting I started months ago and gave me some valuable input on design and rhythm.
This is it:
Daughters (revise) oil on glue gesso board, 20″ x 26″
Work in Progress Painting
Posted in Art, figurative, nude, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags dante divine comedy, figure, harry bennett, heavy nude, nude, oil on panel, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress on May 12, 2011 by Tom BennettWork in progress, another in the series “Old Ruling Class”.
The support is a cradled masonite board treated with a white clay ground, which produces a nice balanced surface that is both a resist and absorbing platform which allows me to do reductive mark-making with tools such as a razor blade, which is a technique my father, Harry, used to great effect in a number of projects such as his Divine Comedy series.
Harry celebrates his 92nd birthday this weekend. Happy Birthday, Dad!
Old ruling Class 5, wip
oil on board, 24″ x18″
Drawing with Harry Christmas 2010
Posted in Art, art on paper, Drawing, figurative, gesture, Harry Bennett, portrait, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags Art, Drawing, figure, harry bennett, paper, sketch book, sketching, Tom Bennett on December 30, 2010 by Tom BennettSpent Christmas with the extended Bennett family and got a little drawing in with my dad. Our Miss Tiller posed, not that you’d know it by my drawing. Harry is still fresh and fluid, of course.
Below, sketches by Harry Bennett. ink on paper. Towson, MD, 12/2010
My drawings after the jump.
Nude study. (and a blog post about Harry)
Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, gesture, Harry Bennett, Illustration, nude, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags book cover, design, Drawing, figure, harry bennett, Illustration, mixed media, nude, Painting, paperback cover art, sketch, Tom Bennett on October 28, 2010 by Tom BennettA mixed media study:
ink, graphite, gouache on paper, 10 x 14
….and more stuff about my dad. He deserves it. A fine and fun blog out of England called Existential Ennui(<click in the hyperlink) pays tribute to him and his paperback book art. The blogger, Louis XlV, even mentions our blog.
Tom Bennett
The Man with a Getaway Face, 1963, Pocket Books division of Simon and Schuster
Our Father Who Art in Towson
Posted in abstract, Art, Harry Bennett, oil painting, Painting, plein air, portrait, Tom Bennett with tags Art, figure, harry bennett, landscape, maryland, oil painting, Painting, plein air, portraiture, Tom Bennett, Towson on October 7, 2010 by Tom BennettAs I had mentioned last week, I hung out with my parents these past 10 days in Maryland. I brought down a paint box and small easel, brushes, prepared boards, etc and my dad, Harry Bennett Sr., went to work. We painted for 3 days out side, and then it turned cold and wet. But in those 3 days he did some great stuff. He is the master. Watch the videos that illustrate his quiet confident command and focus.
We painted each other simultaneously, and the next day he did a lovely expressionist landscape from life.
Here are some images and videos.
Harry Bennett, Painting of Tom, oil on board, 14 x 23
Tom Bennett, Painting of Harry, oil on board, 23 x 14
Harry Bennett, Untitled, oil on board, 20 x 16
Harry painting me:
Harry starting a painting:
Drawing with Harry: A visit to the V.A.
Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, gesture, Harry Bennett, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags Art, Drawing, harry bennett, Tom Bennett on September 30, 2010 by Tom BennettI’m down in Maryland taking care of my parents while my sister is in South America for a week or so. She apparently thought it would be nice to spend every day at a different doctor’s office. One appointment a day. My dad takes his drawing book to the Veteran’s Administration medical center and draws vet patients in the waiting room. One day a woman who he had been drawing looked at his sketch and said, “You should go into the business.” He’s 91, and spent World war ll in the South Pacific jungles as a reconnaissance officer, before spending the rest of his life as an artist.
I apologize for some of the poor photo quality.
These are Harry Bennett’s drawings:
Here I drew Harry contemplating lunch.
Free Love.
Posted in Art, Harry Bennett, Illustration, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags Art, book cover, free love, harry bennett, hippy car, Illustration, Painting, retro, Ridgefield, Tom Bennett, young love on April 7, 2010 by Tom BennettWell, actually the title of the book for which this Harry Bennett illustration was done is “Young Love”. But it’s free for you to look at. Hell, it cost me money to buy it from someone on Ebay. It’s apparently been floating around the country for decades.
My oldest brother Harry modeled for the young mechanic/Don Juan pictured on the pavement. He was in high school and I remember this well. The girl might have been someone named Liz Menton, a local beauty. You can tell how ancient this is by the psychedelic hippie-dippy Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang jalopy. That was what you drove if you were on the cutting edge. I guess it still is. The details are fun for me: I remember those monkey wrenches, and the gasoline tank was a staple of the old barn-like garage behind the house on Main St in Ridgefield, Ct. This was painted in oil on a special gypsum gessoed board my father had especially made by a guy in Long Island City. His company was named Anjac. I still have a stack of these boards in my studio; I use them sparingly. The surface is absolutely marble-like with a superb absorption quality.
Harry Bennett, 1969? oil on gessoed board
More Drawings from Harry
Posted in Art, art on paper, Drawing, figurative, gesture, Harry Bennett, Illustration, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags Art, Drawing, figure, harry bennett, Illustration, life drawings, Tom Bennett on December 3, 2009 by Tom BennettI spent Thanksgiving with my family and was happy to see my father, Harry, had been drawing over the last few weeks since I had seen him last. I went out and bought him some Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens of various points, including a brush point. I happen to use them myself and I think they’re the cat’s pissah. Or meow, if you prefer.
Here are some of his sketchbook drawings for the Autumn season. His comments and musings are always funny and/or revealing.
Tom Bennett
Go to the next page for much more.
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Dad Partied with Joe Cocker
Posted in Art, art on paper, Drawing, gesture, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags Art, Baltimore, Drawing, figure, harry bennett, Joe cocker, life drawing, MD, sketch, Tom Bennett, Towson, woodstock on September 2, 2009 by Tom BennettWhen the storm came in at Woodstock. Anyway, I spent time this week down in old Baltimore with the rents and did some drawing with Harry. His concentration tightens and his energy accelerates when he draws, which doesn’t happen as much as it should, as far as I’m concerned. Here are Harry’s drawings:
These are my meager contributions:
Old Man, Take Two: Another Monotype of Harry, Sr.
Posted in Art, art on paper, monotype, portrait, printmaking, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags Art, exhibit, gallery, harry bennett, monotype, portrait, printmaking, riversea gallery, Tom Bennett on June 25, 2009 by Tom BennettI’ve been invited to participate in a small show of printmakers in a gallery out in Oregon, where my father is well known and loved. So I’m making more images of him to be possibly included. Here’s another stab at the old prince, fresh off the press. The paint and ink is still wetter than an otter in the Saugatuck Reservoir.
Oil paint, etching ink, lithography ink, turpentine, pencil, razor, knife, rag, et al on rives bfk.
Tom Bennett
Portrait of Harry Bennett, Sr. 2009, monotype, 12″ x 18″
Drawing with Harry, another day
Posted in Art, Drawing, geture drawing, Tom Bennett with tags Art, Drawing, gesture, harry bennett, Illustration, Painting, paper, Tom Bennett on June 18, 2009 by Tom BennettI spent several days in Maryland with my parents and the hope of convincing my father to paint, but that proved more challenging than I thought. I did entice him to draw with me however. My mother, Margaret joined in as well and it was a lovely day on the deck in the woods. Here are some of Harry’s always bracing drawings.
Old Man Take a Look at My Life
Posted in Art, art on paper, current events, figurative, monotype, portrait, printmaking, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags Art, harry bennett, monotype, paper, portrait, printmaking, Tom Bennett on May 27, 2009 by Tom BennettI made a monotype for my father on his 90th birthday celebration.
Tom Bennett
It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.
- Mark Rothko
Harry, 2009, monotype, 18 x 12
click here for larger image
Happy Birthday, Harry
Posted in Art, Miscellaneous, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags Art, birthday, harry bennett, Painting, riversea gallery, Tom Bennett on May 15, 2009 by Tom BennettToday is my father Harry Bennett’s birthday. He is 90 years old. Born in Lewisboro, NY, to Anna Karlsson Bennett, a swedish immigrant who had recently been widowed, he was raised in Ridgefield, Ct and went on to serve in the south Pacific during World War ll. He studied art in chicago and worked as a painter and illustrator back in Connecticut where he raised 5 children as a freelancer. I lived and breathed his studio and wanted to be him. He is a wonderful, patient, loving man with a brilliant sense of both design and direct power with the plastic medium.
Depot Ghost, oil on canvas, 17′ x 23″
Harry Bennett at Riversea Gallery
Happy birthday, Harry!
Tom Bennett
No Comment.
Posted in andre kertesz, Art, figurative, nude, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags andre kertesz, Art, distortion, figure, harry bennett, nude, nude woman, Painting, Tom Bennett, wip on May 14, 2009 by Tom BennettPlease, not that you are reading this, but even if you are, no comments are necessary. I understand the difficulty in responding. We don’t have the time or patience. It’s not your fault.
This is an unfinished oil painting on enamel-primed masonite with turps and black oil. It’s part of the series of distorted nudes I’ve been doing. The influences here are André Kertész and Harry Bennett. As I was working I realized how much the treatment of the figure, the distortions and the markings had the imprimatura of my father.
Again, if you wish to comment, I’ll look away for a second to give you privacy.
TOM BENNETT
Andre and Harry, 2009, oil on masonite with enamel, 48′ x 36″
Drawing with Harry
Posted in Art, art on paper, Drawing, geture drawing, portrait, Tom Bennett with tags Art, blind drawing, Drawing, figure, gesture, harry bennett, paper, portrait, Tom Bennett on January 21, 2009 by Tom BennettMy father, Harry Bennett, has been an illustrator and a painter all his life. Over the last year and half he has experienced some physical, neurological and life-style upheavals and he had stopped painting or even drawing. I have been spending more time with him in the last few months and I am trying to coax him back to drawing on a more regular basis. The other day we spent some time doing gesture drawings and blind contours of each other. He was so energized and he loved it.
These are some of his drawings of me. ink on paper:
And a couple of mine:
darteboard
jdhastings
ssstephg
Tom Bennett
Toni Tiller
Jason Gray
probrucer
laelia e. mitchell
