Artists
Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett
In his long career as an abstract painter Bennett has exhibited at the Royal Academy, Hayward and Serpentine in London, at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and in the John Moores Biennials in Liverpool where he has also been a prize winner. Recently he has exhibited during Somerset Arts Week and at Art Fairs and galleries in London, Bath and Glasgow. In 2007 he exhibited in a two person show at Hybrid.
Bennett's "Tree" paintings came into being about 3 years ago. The paintings are conceived in groups and created simultaneously. Each canvas portrays a solitary, emblematic tree; each one in its own space, light and weather. Viewing the paintings together they can give the illusion of time passing; of approaching and retreating; they can shift and melt into abstraction. Equally, viewing one, a single tree can stand alone, complete and self-contained.
The paintings are not topographical and avoid the picturesque, they communicate with the viewer rather as symbols which may evoke personal memories and experiences and often expose buried feelings.
"There is open reference to the loss of time and place and in this sense the paintings are mournful. The light however can be interpreted as sunset or sunrise and the paintings whilst being solemn; walk the thin line between sorrow and hope." Michael Bennett 2006
