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Oil on canvas • 54" x 60"
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Mannish Boy
Oil on canvas • 62" x 52"
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Oil on canvas • 45" x 68"
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My current method of working involves painting from photographs
of those close to
me. I apply the paint thickly to highlight the “object”
nature of the painting, and to
acknowledge the contemporary mass production of oil paint. I began
this work by
using candid photos to execute a singular image of the model. It
was not long before I saw these images as incomplete. A singular,
monolithic figure floating in the middle of a canvas seemed out
of step in this age of image proliferation. Our culture is inundated
with images from around the world; and, through digital technology,
we can contribute our own images to the stew with greater ease.
I began to create photomontages of the model and using these as
the basis from which to paint. This gives me an ability to justify
my paintings in the contemporary milieu of images, and to deal with
the paintings surface in a way that was introduced by abstract painters
of the twentieth century. Most importantly, a collection of images
enables me to more accurately represent the time I spend with the
model, and the necessary contribution of the model to painting.
Without the altruism of the model, centuries of art history would
cease to exist.
Mark Bennett, 2007
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