An introduction to Stephen Bennett - Portrait Painter
The Arch, Repton Schools' Art Gallery will be hosting an exhibition by Stephen Bennett from November 12th until November 26th.
Stephen Bennett, American portrait painter, makes annual trips around the world to paint portraits of indigenous peoples. Young, old, joyful, withered faces populate these vibrant canvases, celebrating a variety of ethnic strains in a tapestry painted with strong brushwork. Stephen's objective is to share his experiences of the diversity of human life. His work has been used to promote and preserve native cultures in the United States, Mexico, St. Martin, Panama, French Polynesia, the Seychelles, Tanzania and Australia. He continues to extend an invitation to the all to suggest new ways in which his work can be used as a forum for cultural awareness.
Stephen began painting the faces of indigenous people he met in 1993 when he traveled to Mexico. He then lived in France, St Martin, French Polynesia, Seychelles and also Panama at the invitation of then President Dr. Ernesto Perez Balladares. In 2001 he lived in Tanzania and then Namibia where he spent a year painting the Himba and Kung (San) peoples. In 2003 he circumnavigated Australia to learn about, and paint its people. During this time he was sponsored to teach indigenous children at the annual Croc Festival. This three-month tour allowed him to teach portrait painting workshops to over four thousand children.
2006 found him in living in Brunei and Malaysia and then to Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, Oceania where he spent six months in 2007. In 2008 he visited Morocco and 2009 has found him so far in Kenya with his family to study the Turkahna, Pokot, Massai and Samburu peoples with plans to go to Egypt in 2010 to find the Indigenous peoples along the length of the Nile down into Sudan.
Stephen's art effects the viewer on many levels. Along with an appreciation of his superb mastery of paint and vibrant use of color, his portraits also teach us to learn to look in a different way at something that could be quite ordinary. "I am a portrait painter because of my passion for people. My portraits convey a fusion of my feelings for each subject with my use of color. I strive to reveal the personality of my subjects, intensifying them in a celebration of their cultural existence."
Stephen Bennett Cell: (917) 238-1173 theportraitpainter@gmail.com. www.theportraitpainter.com