| Scott
Bennett has been drawing and painting most of his life
and received a B.F.A. from Syracuse University in 1974. As a nationally
known artist he has been exhibited widely, and been recognized
by his professional peers, major art critics, and collectors,
to be making high level art in what can be called the major tradition
of visual art.
Bennett's artistic output includes painterly landscapes and still
life in acrylic, informed by 15 years of making abstract pictures,
and detailed botanical watercolors, primarily of carnivorous plants.
The work of two very distinct genres is inspired, in part, by
the same sense of wonder that filled him during his childhood
when exploring the woods, swamps and fields in his native northern
New Jersey. These explorations continue to this day as he maintains
a passionate interest in seeking out unique natural places such
as bogs, rain forests and alpine meadows. These ecosystems, that
are sometimes home to the carnivorous plants that he loves, are
occasionally depicted in his landscape paintings.
Since the mid 70's he has been actively growing and painting carnivorous
plants, although the botanical watercolors have only rarely been
exhibited. Occasionally, some of the plant paintings have been
published as illustrations in horticultural magazines such as
Hortscience and American Horticulturalist sparking
interest with collectors. An award winning book on Carnivorous
Plants called The Savage Garden, by Peter D'Amato, was
published in 1998 using many of Bennett's paintings and drawings
as illustrations.
In 1988 he made a small run of hand painted and silkscreened prints
of an amaryllis, and then the following year a small hand colored
and offset litho print of a pitcher plant (S. leucophylla). While
these are very unique and beautiful pieces they do not show all
the detail of color and drawing that the watercolors have in them.
Being hand colored they are also more time consuming to produce
and cost more in the end. The decision was made in 1997 to make
prints using high quality offset lithography with special pigment
based, fade resistant inks printed on archival, acid free paper.
The work Sweet Pitcher Plant and Violet Butterwort, published
as a limited edition, is the only one available of this type,
and is a poster size print.
Throughout the 80's, 90's and into the 21st century, Bennett has
received both critical and commercial success with his painting.
The botanical drawings and watercolors remained on the sideline
as a result of time constraints due to the level of ambition and
energy devoted to his acrylic painting. Nevertheless, his interest
in, and love for carnivorous plants and their habitats never waned.
Now, with the newest ink jet printer technology and pigment based
inks, it is possible to make very high quality prints on demand
that are archival, have excellent color and detail, and are affordable.
This has increased the number and variety of prints that can be
made available, along with a giant leap in image quality. All
the details of the originals are reproduced very precisely. Some
of the more informal studies, lost gems that may not have been
selected because of the need to prioritize with more finished
works, can now be made into prints as well. In addition, this
technology gives Bennett the tools to realize a long time dream
of creating folios and monographs on specific genera of carnivorous
plants, and doing it with complete artistic control over the publishing
from start to finish.
Many drawings and color studies from life are used to create a
finished painting which is done in watercolor, gouache, and sometimes
acrylic. Sometimes there is a suggestion of natural habitat surrounding
the plant which is informed by Bennett's field experience. The
final painting combines botanical accuracy and aesthetic harmony
to make a work of Art that is much more than illustration, and
shows a true love for the subject. |