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Archive for homage

An 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 Bennett

I’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″

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Sexual Assault Can Lead to Liver Damage

Posted in Art, homage, male nude, nude, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags abstract, allegory, Art, baroque, expression, figure, homage, male nude, nude, oil painting, Painting, punishment, retribution, symbolist painting, titian, Tityus, Tom Bennett on May 5, 2011 by Tom Bennett

Tityus was the Greek mythological character who was put to death for assaulting a daughter of Zeus and sentenced to be eternally chained in the great pit of Tartarus, a greek version of hell, while his liver (thought to hold passionate emotion, ie, anger) was gnawed at by vultures and snakes. This story of eternal struggle and retribution is similar to the Prometheus myth and in ways to the narrative of Sisyphus. Titian apparently loved this line of metaphor; he made paintings of all of these subjects. Last year I made a monotype based on his Sisyphus.

I see existential analogies between ancient myth and the contemporary human condition and have always been intrigued by the dark gothic drama of baroque allegorical art. Here I’ve taken multiple images from allegorical paintings and overlapped them, searching for some kind of combination of grace, jaggedness and abstracted puzzlement.

As with any just completed piece I post, I’m still pondering adjustments.

Considering the connection to sclerosis and retribution, I’ve invented a new drink, The Bin Laden: 2 shots and a splash of water. (apologies to the ultra sensitive)

Thanks, I’ll be here all week. Enjoy the veal.

Tom Bennett

Weekend at Tartarus, oil on panel, 28″ x 48″

detail

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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 abstract, Art, figurative painting, homage, nude, oil on panel, oil painting, Painting, rape, rubens, Tom Bennett 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

Sisters, oil on panel, 24″ x 30″

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Aesthetic Limbo

Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, homage, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags abstract, allegory, Art, homage, oil on panel, oil painting, Painting, tiepolo, Tom Bennett on March 17, 2011 by Tom Bennett

I’m continuing with the deconstruction and reconstruction of antique allegorical paintings. This was initially influenced by Tiepolo’s The Martyrdom of St Bartholomew. I’m concerned here with the relationship of process and the subconscious; finding the ambiguous spaces between the concrete and the obscure. At this stage it simply looks like a semi cubist painting, so I’m unsure of my feelings about it.
The support for this painting is a ready-made cradled hardboard with a texture I’m not entirely happy with. The acrylic gessoed, evenly patterned surface seems to absorb the medium too fast and too much, and the texture isn’t quite responding to the tools I’m using for mark-making. I think I’ll be returning to a little more resistant surface.

Tom Bennett

Bartholemew 3-11, 2011, oil on panel, 24″ x 18″

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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 abstract, Art, caravaggio, homage, oil on panel, oil painting, Painting, St Peter, Tom Bennett 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.

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

Detail

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

St Peter

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Older Naked Female

Posted in andre kertesz, Art, art on paper, exhibits, figurative, homage, monotype, nude, printmaking, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags andre kertesz, exhibit, figure, homage, MGNE, monotype, nude, printmaking, Tom Bennett, zullo gallery on January 27, 2011 by Tom Bennett

I left my camera down south and can’t photograph what I am currently working on. That’s just as well. So here is a piece from two years ago. It was accepted into an upcoming show at the Zullo Gallery in Medford, MA, organized by the Monotype Guild of New England.
Its a monotype inspired by André Kertész, who I’ve talked about before, and who’s beautifully distorted photographs of the female nude excited me as a young man. He used distorted mirrors to achieve the twisted form. His work subtly refers to the classic aesthetic and the same time reflects the then current developments of avant-garde thinking.
The paper was accidentally torn as the print was pulled. Here you can see it (on the bulbous hip) before I repaired it with an archival paper adhesive.

Elegy to Kertesz 2, 2009, monotype, image:12″ x 18″, framed: 23″ x 28″

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Baby Boomer Remorse

Posted in Art, figurative, homage, oil painting, Painting, technique, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress with tags Art, caravaggio, figure, homage, oil on board, Painting, Tom Bennett, wip 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.

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

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One Must Make Sacrifices…

Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, gesture, monotype, printmaking, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags beheading, caravaggio, homage, monotype, printmaking, recession, Tom Bennett on December 2, 2010 by Tom Bennett

This piece could be a comment on the current state of the world economy and its effects. Or a statement on the wrath of scorned women. Maybe just the fact that the old testament is one bloody violent book.
Suggested by Carravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes.

Holofernes is Expendable.
monotype, 12″ x 18″, oil, etching inks, paint stick ,

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Disturbing

Posted in Art, art on paper, Drawing, figurative, homage, mixed media, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags abstract, Art, Drawing, figure, homage, mixed media, silenus, Tom Bennett, van dyke on November 18, 2010 by Tom Bennett

Someone recently suggested these were disturbing in a Tracey Emin kind of a way. Peculiar. That is scary. I don’t know.
These may have some autobiographical connections. The first is loosely based on a Van Dyke.

Mixed media: india ink, letraset ink, graphite

Drunken Silenus 1

Drunken Silenus 2

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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 Art, homage, monotype, myth, printmaking, sisyphus, symbol, titian, Tom Bennett, venetian school 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), monotype, 9″ x 12″

click here for the original by the old Italian:
Titian

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M is for monotype

Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, homage, monotype, Painting, printmaking, Tom Bennett with tags Art, caravaggio, homage, monotype, Painting, paper, printmaking, Tom Bennett on January 7, 2010 by Tom Bennett

and for Michelangelo Merisi, the painter who was known as Caravaggio. His life, like his painting was big and brilliant and desperate. Filled with myth and mystery. I’m a big fan of his. Here are some studies I’ve done as homages.

Enjoy. Or if not, have a scotch.

Tom Bennett

John in the Wild #1, 2010, monotype, 12″ x 12″

The Entombment, 2010, monotype, 12″ x 12″

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End of a Decade:

Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, homage, monotype, printmaking, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags Art, father time, figure, homage, monotype, new year, printmaking, saturn, simon vouet, symbolism, Tom Bennett on December 31, 2009 by Tom Bennett

Father Time Overcome by Love, Hope and Beauty, after Simon Vouet. monotype, 12 ” x 12″

The first decade of the century is done, and I’m Overcome by Love, Hope and Beauty. Well, that would be a change of pace anyway. I’m deep down a sentimental romantic but I’m not looking back. Here’s a monotype based on a painting by Simon Vouet of Old Father Time himself, or Saturn as some would call him, having his self-deluding ass kicked by the symbols of power, yes, women.
A couple of more monotypes after the jump.

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From the Archives: Philistines are a Pain

Posted in Archives, Art, figurative, homage, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags Art, figure, Guercino, homage, Painting, Samson and the Philistines, Tom Bennett on June 3, 2009 by Tom Bennett

Nothing new this week. So here’s a painting from back in 2005. A distorted take on Guercino’s “Samson” at the Metropolitan Museum

Tom Bennett, Samson and the Philistines after Guercino, 2005, oil on board, 24 x 48

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Distortion: recalling André Kertész

Posted in Art, art on paper, figurative, homage, monotype, Photography, printmaking, Tom Bennett, work on paper with tags abstract, Art, digital, figure, homage, Kertesz, monotype, Photography, printmaking, Tom Bennett on April 30, 2009 by Tom Bennett

I was thinking of the hungarian photographer André Kertész, when I was pushing the ink and paint around. He made a series of distorted nudes, inspired by the properties of water on the human form, but using mirrors to metamorphicize the figure. My father Harry had a book of these photos and I recall first browsing through it as an 11 year old.

Elegy to Kertész, monotype, 17″ x 11″

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I Will Cut You

Posted in Art, figurative, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags Art, bartholomew, biblical, figure, flaying, homage, martydom, martyrdom, oil painting, Painting, saint, tiepolo, Tom Bennett, torture, wip, Work in Progress on April 2, 2009 by Tom Bennett

Its the flaying of an old forgotten biblical character!

Warning! Work in Progress!

A painting I started a while ago. I placed it facing the wall for several weeks and have come back to it, battling with it to seek out some sort of resolution between the abstract, the representation and the physical properties of the material. It’s at a state of total unresolution and confusion, much like I imagine the old man was at the time of his skinning. I’m struggling with it and its been bitch slapping me. I welcome the pain and the tears , but the biting has to stop. I want my mother.

Tom Bennett

The Martydom of Bartholomew (after Tiepolo), oil on canvas, 48″ x 36″

extreme detail:

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The Mart of Bart: A transcription

Posted in Art, art on paper, homage, Miscellaneous, monotype, Painting, printmaking, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress with tags Art, Canvas, figure, homage, monotype, Painting, paper, tiepolo, Tom Bennett, wip on January 15, 2009 by Tom Bennett

Artists have always looked to the past for inspiration or simply to learn from the masters. Transcription is the term for the process of making a work based on a preceding work by another artist.
This is a study and a larger work in progress. Based on the painting by Tiepolo, depicting the martyrdom of that old kidder, the apostle Bartholomew. The story is he was flayed alive and crucified upside down. Well that’s a fun-filled story, but what I responded to was the design and movement of the original.

– Tom Bennett

monotype, 18″ x 12″

In progress, oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″

the original: The Martyrdom of St Bartholomew, Tiepolo, 1722

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Portrait and Allegory

Posted in Art, art on paper, Links, monotype, Painting, portrait, Tom Bennett, Uncategorized with tags allegory, Art, figure, homage, monotype, Painting, paper, portrait, tiepolo, Tom Bennett on January 8, 2009 by Tom Bennett

This week I’m posting a monotype that was requested as a gift, below; and another in a series of interpretations of allegorical paintings, this time the baroque “Neptune and Venus”, by Tiepolo.