THE ART & SOUL OF FLOATING & DRIFTING: CAROL BENNETT
CAROL BENNETT
Carol Bennett’s underwater paintings show the physical, spiritual and emotional strength and beauty of swimmers, heightened by the beautiful shapes and forms created by the flow of water.
Women in Water:
“My Women in Water series comes from a personal place: I swim 7 days a week, and while I don’t consider them self- portraits, I am the swimmer in the paintings. Nor do I consider myself an athlete; this is a spiritual practice that is integral to my art work.” -- Carol Bennett
Carol Bennett’s “Women in Water” series comes from a personal place: She swims 7 days a week. While the works are not self- portraits, per se, Bennett is the swimmer in the paintings. She swims more for the spiritual vs the athletic experience.
Spirituality plays a big role in Bennett’s works. Bennett’s figures float in the pools -- appearing to drift, both in body and mind. They are on an endless exploration.
“My swimmers patrol the water’s edge and the ocean’s floor, finding stuff to recycle as art,” Bennett tells us. “The swimmers are my navigation tool: they have lead me to explore fishing nets and knots, abstract fish patterns, surfers and stand up paddlers... flotsam and jetsam and their ecological impact.”
Presently, in her latest works, Bennett is fixated on just water itself, as it moves, changes, mirrors and opens up a whole new window on the world.
Bennett’s recent exhibition at the Eisenhauer Gallery, entitled “Wet,” showed a range of female swimmers from an underwater perspective. While many swimmers are shown in pools, inspiration comes from the waters of Kauai, where Bennett lives and works.
Many of the paintings portray the artist herself during her daily swims. All of Bennett’s swimmers have a strong sense of self and place.
Bennett’s husband, Wayne Zebzda, a videographer, often shoots videos of her underwater. She selects stills that capture the fluidity of her movements to turn into paintings.
At the tops of her paintings, we marvel at the abstract reflections on the surface of the water. At the bottoms, we are transfixed with the way the water treats the human forms.
With some, painted on plywood, Bennett follows the grain of the wood to help construct her forms, like the muscles of swimmers and the flow of water. Some of the “Wet” works are reverse glass paintings, adding another level of watery feel.
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All paintings by Carol Bennett.
- "Glider."
- “Kelly.”
- “Koa.”
- “Summer White.”
- “Gabby Study.”
- “Kelly.”
- “Archer.”
- “Light Catch Study.”
- “Lift.”
- “Ascend.”
- “Lagoon.”
- “Dissolve.”