GARY BENNETT

As a painter, I have always been intrigued with ordinary plastic, commercial, recyclable containers containing contents for home use, such as: liquid soaps, milk, face creams, shampoo, fruit juices, etc.  The majority of these objects are are made from plastic.  

Paper sacks have also played a major role as subjects for my paintings. I find the folds and creases that create complex surface textures very facinating.  

My colors tend to be muted, and the edges of my subject matter, soft, and thus, lending to atmospheric effects.  

I also tend to work in series, exploring many of the same or similar objects in different compositional schemes, colors, light temperatures (cool north light as coming through a window, or warm spotlight). 

I work in my studio several hours a day most days of the week. 

The artists that have been the most influential in my work are:  Giorgio Morandi, Italian landscape and still life master, early mid 20th Century; Jean Simeon Chardin, French still life master, 18th Century; Gordon Cook, Bay Area landscape and still life master, latter 20th Century; and the Pop Art Movement of the mid-1950s to the 1960s.  Available works at Fogue Studios