ARTIST STATEMENT

As an artist, I search beyond representation and so my intuition plays a fundamental part in my approach. There is deliberate tension between areas of abstraction and finer detail, with most works manifesting a distillation of collected experience into a visual unity and evocation of time and feeling.

The world I create through painting reflects my own life and the people I surround myself with. I draw inspiration from many sources and subcultures... Victorian cemeteries, mourning costume, taxidermy/cabinet of curiosities and post mortem photography from the Victorian era fascinates me.

There is an essence of myself in most of my work, combined with elements of alter ego and moods to match each on any given day. I enjoy working with twin images and themes of personal reflection and I am intrigued by how we portray and imagine our outer persona as women, versus how others actually see us and who we really are.

The relationship between my figures is ambiguous, and so they are often charged with a tense, dark energy... whereas some figures with tangled, abstracted innards on display suggest the body as a mysterious other, surreal and unknowable with a life of its own, and ultimately mortal.


BACKGROUND

Margaretann Bennett graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 1991 and has since worked full-time at her studio in Glasgow. She exhibits in galleries and at major art fairs throughout the UK, and in the major Scottish open exhibitions. She has won numerous awards and her paintings are held in the public collections of St Andrews Hospital, Fife and Princess Margaret Rose Hospital, Edinburgh. Margaretann is constantly pushing the boundaries of her work, resulting in a progressive transformation toward a darker imagery and narrative. It is not surprising that this no holds barred artist has a large and growing following who can't get enough of her exciting work.


AWARDS

2011 - The Mabel MacKinlay Award. RGI
2010 - The Scottish Arts Club Award. RSW
2007 - Inverarity One to One Travel Award. RGI
2007 - The Arnold Clark Award. PAI
2006 - The Armour Award. RGI
2006 - The William Bowie Award. PAI
2005 - Landside College Watercolour Award. RGI
2005 - Contemporary Fine Art Gallery Award. PAI
2000 - The Glasgow Art Club Fellowship. RGI
1997 - Scottish Arts Council Individual Development Award.