I have several works in an upcoming group show in Brooklyn. The exhibition has a theme: Horses. Theme shows are sometimes iffy, but I have confidence this will be very good. These two mixed media monotype/paintings in progress are part of several final pieces I’m working on for this show. The first one is in a very unresolved stage.
Here’s an old monotype from the archives.
I once spent a week in the Uffizi drawing room collection when one could be issued a special permit to examine original old master drawings by hand (wearing special cotton gloves, of course)–literally holding the ancient drawings on paper in your hands! Needless to say, that special provision is history. Carracci impressed me with his beautifully facile line and form. I came away with a man crush on the old italian.
Inaugural, monotype with oil paint overlay on paper, 28″ x 18″
I’ve lived in NY city for a long time and have experienced this city through many crisis both natural and man-made. It may sound like a cliche but I have found it absolutely true: NYers are best when circumstances are worst. Hurricane Sandy, the most destructively powerful natural disaster in recorded city history slammed the the northeast causing devastation through the boroughs, not to mention the whole tri-state area. Fear and destruction played out through the last several days but individuals steel through it.
Below is a photo I took several blocks from my house in Brooklyn, as the storm was slowly heading towards us.
Below is a monotype I made later that night, as the city was flooding and i was fortunate enough to have electricity and a dry house.
Breach 1, stage 1, monotype, 16″ x 20″
here i sit awaiting the wrath of the superstorm sandy. so far we still have power and so i’ll quickly post. spent the weekend in a printmaking workshop in northampton ma discovering the joy of the pronto plate. it’s a super versatile material originally developed for the commercial printing industry. here’s a link http://www.nontoxicprint.com/polyesterplatelitho.htm i’ll definitely continue exploring this process.
in the meanwhile, today i’ll play with woodblock stuff. since i’m at home, i’ll spread some old tablecloth or something and have some fun
Another in a series of self portraits
oil over monotype on paper, 20″ x 16″
Took a monotype I made a few years ago of an homage to Valentin de Boulogne’s Martyrdom of St Bartholomew and painted back into it. It went from an old man being crucified to a young woman who may have just done some crucifying herself. I was inspired by a photograph of Toni.
Tom Bennett
The original monotype I found a little clumsy.
The reworked image.
Dominant at Rest, oil over monotype on paper, 16″ x 20″
Some small painted monotypes for an upcoming show in Massachussets and a naked monotype which came out looking like Gloria Swanson with big boobs.
Tom Bennett
Beauty 2, monotype with oil overpainting, image 8″ x 6″
Beauty, monotype with oil overpainting, image 8′ x 6″
Sunset Boulevard, monotype on Rives BFK, 12″ x 9″
This I’m going to paint into.
TB
Age, monotype, 8″ x 6″
When I was 15 I got my first tattoo, a dragon on my shoulder that I thought was just oh so cool at the time, but which not surprisingly didn’t hold up over time. I also had “hustler” across the back of my neck, which oddly enough I didn’t regret nearly as much, but still felt like I had outgrown it. The idea of having my whole back reworked sounded daunting and it was something that could be put off indefinitely with nothing but nagging ideas of it at the back of my mind. Luckily this year I had the good fortune to meet a local tattoo artist who wasn’t phased by the challenge at all, and it was pleasing to find the process of developing and executing the idea to be so similar to every other collaboration I’ve had with other artists. Ideas get kicked around, things get produced, editing takes place, and 11 hours and many conversations later we have something.
In the end I couldn’t be more pleased with the results so as a token of thanks I made a monotype of one of his favorite subjects. Sadly these never look as good online as they do in person, something about printing them on fabric just gets lost in the translation. So here it is, and thank you Mr. Chapman, you did an outstanding job.
Oh and if anyone is interested this is what he did for me.
1st Stage of a painting on monotype.
Tom Bennett, Exit Stage 1, work in progress, oil & oil based printmaking inks on Rives BFK,
9″ x 12″
This is a monotype with oil paint piece I made as part of a portrait swap with another artist. I have not seen his interpretation of me yet. I’m guessing a post-traumatic Bert Lahr.
David, monotype with oil paint, 16″ x 20″
Painting on paper. Monotyped ink as the foundation. As I worked on this I realized it resembled someone specifically, but it was unconscious on my part. The reference image was pieced together from several sources. In other words, I didn’t consciously set out to paint this friend of mine. But this woman ends up as a proxy in so many of my paintings.
Prone, oil on monotype underpainting on paper, 16″ x 20″
The great and legendary blue grass guitarist Doc Watson died this week at the age of 89. I saw him perform once about 10 years ago at the Village Vanguard in the west village and it was a truly memorable performance. This is a painting I did over an old monotype of a dog, which I suppose is apropos, considering his blindness and the hang dog blues he sometimes played on his Gibson. It’s a distorted image and not a great likeness, but here’s to Doc.
Doc Watson, oil over monotype on paper, 10″ x 18″
small painting on paper.
In the Hold, oil painting into monotype, 20′ x 16″
The title is a reference to the non-committal online connections that pass for friendship bonds today. The whole concept is silly and sad. That said, please don’t un-follow me or I’ll cut my ear off.
With the paint into monotype I’m continuing to explore a guarded, nuanced and neutral palette with some higher hues thrown in. Here the cool grays got too blue and of course the yellow blares out a bit. The figure may have pronounced itself rather more than was intended, but I’m ok with it.
Unfollow, 2008-2012, oil into monotype on paper, 18″ x 12″
Agora Gallery - the proud sponsor of the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, which offers contemporary artists the opportunity to show their original art at one the most acclaimed juried art shows in Chelsea, New York’s art galleries district.
Tom Bennett
darteboard
galinatodorova
Jason Gray
jdhastings
laelia e. mitchell
probrucer
ssstephg
Toni Tiller
