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Work in Progress Painting

Posted in Art, figurative, nude, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2011 by Tom Bennett

Work 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″

Old Ruling Class 5 WIP

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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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 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 in Tartarus

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

detail

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 , , , , , , , , , , 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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Aesthetic Limbo

Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, homage, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , , , 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

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 , , , , , , , , 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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Painting in Tongues

Posted in Art, figurative, oil painting, Painting, portrait, Tom Bennett, Toni Tiller with tags , , , , , , , , on November 25, 2010 by Tom Bennett

I’m interested in how the viewer digests, distills, deconstructs and then reconstructs a piece of art. The visual language an artist uses must rely on the understanding of that language by the viewer in order for the work to to be interpreted as art.
The first is a representational portrait of fellow blogger Toni Tiller, the second is an unfinished version, a work in progress with the intent of abstraction. The first uses marks that signify and symbolize very specific ideas, whereas the second uses a language that speaks more about material first and objective form second. What perception and perspective the audience carries in response to each piece is significant.

Tom Bennett

Tiller A, 11/10

Toni Tiller A, 11/10, oil on board, 24′ x 24″

Tiller B 11/10

Toni Tiller B, 11/10, oil on board, 24″ x 24″

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Our Father Who Art in Towson

Posted in abstract, Art, Harry Bennett, oil painting, Painting, plein air, portrait, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2010 by Tom Bennett

As 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.

Painting of Tom Bennett by Harry Bennett 10-02-10
Harry Bennett, Painting of Tom, oil on board, 14 x 23

Portrait of Harry, 10/02/10
Tom Bennett, Painting of Harry, oil on board, 23 x 14

Painting by Harry Bennett 10/03/10
Harry Bennett, Untitled, oil on board, 20 x 16

Harry painting me:

Harry starting a painting:

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Truro Beach

Posted in Art, figurative, oil painting, Painting, plein air, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , , , on September 23, 2010 by Tom Bennett

Was up on Cape Cod last week. One of my favorite places on earth. This was painted en plein air.

Truro Beach
Oil on board, 14″ x 28″

painting on truro beach

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Work In Progress

Posted in Art, Jason Gray with tags , , on May 27, 2010 by Jason Gray

Oil on Canvas, 30″ x 40″.

It has been a long, looong time since I’ve really sat down and painted with oils.  Today, I had quite a few hours to myself, so I decided to do just that.  I have a few old pieces, that I was never happy with and that I have been contemplating painting over.  In this case, I went about merely reworking the original (and I do have plans to come back and finish it before another year slips off into the abyss).  Original after the jump–>

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You Must Destroy to Create.

Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, nude, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett, Work in Progress with tags , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2009 by Tom Bennett

(That’s spoken with an monotone eastern European accent.)

There has been talk of the individual approach to process and time management this week on the blog. It was addressed in a post from Tuesday.

Lately I’ve really been busted trying to manage my time in the studio. Its a drag with a capital g.

I work in a variety of ways. My monotypes, due to the nature of the medium, are produced rather quickly, in a matter of hours or less. Sometimes a painting will take but a relatively short time depending on the energy, the conceptual circumstances and how efficiently my subconscious is doing the thinking.
Other times, a piece or pieces will go through the whole “create and destroy and create” exercise and may take weeks or months to be realized. Here is an example of a painting I started a few weeks ago which has -and will – go through a metamorphosis as a dialogue of sorts. The conversation is all an adventure and will go through so many changes I may not quite know where it will end. The piece was started as a part of an ongoing series of paintings connected to the idea of the “purdah” and its related symbology and meanings.

I started it as a straight figure, but I unfortunately don’t have documentation from that first stage. Then I furiously worked into it.
a stage from a few weeks ago:

Unfinished Purdah

It wasn’t working for me; it was at a narrative and formal stage I wasn’t satisfied with. so I continued.

unfinished purdah version 2

and another stage

unfinished purdah version 3

Here it is staring at me now:

unfin purdah version 4

I wanted to push the form, the abstraction and the marks somewhere else. I’ll sit with this a little. it might be finished; I’ll keep you updated. Cause I know you care.

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Unfinished Purdah

Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, nude, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , , , on November 5, 2009 by Tom Bennett

I’ve been interested in pursuing neutral, almost colorless paintings. Of course, there is a world of color in the most neutral composition of blacks grays, and whites. At any rate, this painting has been labor and is not co-operating. I demand the painting to bow to my will. Instead it has behaved difficultly. We shall see where this ends up.

Unfinished Purdah

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Hidden in Plain Sight

Posted in abstract, Art, figurative, oil painting, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , on October 8, 2009 by Tom Bennett

I have been thinking of black and white abstract expressionist paintings I have seen at shows in NY lately. The jumbled patterns create an infinite number of possible narrative forms that become a kind of “screen”, a “purdah” of sorts. This is the first of a series I’d like to explore, using more or less small bits of color to break up the wider field of black, white and grays.

Tom Bennett

abstract purdah

Purdah, oil on canvas, 60″ x 48″

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Nude as Landscape in Progress

Posted in Art, figurative, landscape, nude, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , on August 27, 2009 by Tom Bennett

An unfinished oil on board, a nude that’s something of a cross between a landscape and a rabbit. I haven’t decided which way I want to see it: as a horizontal or vertical.

Landscape figure

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Today I Need This

Posted in Stephanie Gerolimatos with tags , , , on April 3, 2009 by ssstephg

Fabulous is the word that comes to mind.

Bob Barker – Original Art Oil Painting
Created on 2007

Original: Hand made sculptured, painted & signed by Gerald L. Sabatini – Artist.

32.0″H X 27.5″W X 2.0″D
15 LB.

And when I say need, I mean I may shatter into a bazillion tiny particles and dissolve into the universe if I don’t get it.  Such is my desire.  So please, if any of you out there with an extra $3,500,000.00 in your pocket care an ounce for my existence, I beg you.  Please make my life worth living with this magnificent gift.

The above description was borrowed from the ebay listing where this masterpiece is being offered. I know what you’re thinking.  you’re wondering if the seller has more art for sale.  OH yeah.

with love,

-Steph Gerolimatos

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I Will Cut You

Posted in Art, figurative, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 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

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

extreme detail:
bartholemew detail

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Antique Mermaid

Posted in abstract, Archives, Art, figurative, oil painting, Painting, Tom Bennett with tags , , , , , , on February 19, 2009 by Tom Bennett

It’s ancient history time….
An old painting from my first days of living in New York. This was first shown at the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, Ct back in ’85.

click for larger view.

Mermaid 84

Mermaid, 1984, oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″

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