RICK BENNETT
watercolors
about
In rural eastern North Carolina, my mother would gather the family to the car and off we would go exploring some abandoned house, tramping through the woods or hunting for fossils along the Neuse River shore. My recent work explores the shapes, light and places that tell me I am home. A playful and contemporary application of watercolor is pared with an emotional attachment to my roots in the coastal southeast.
What attracts me to watercolor is less science and is more like alchemy. There are surprises, mishaps and sudden beauty. I push the water, blot back, flow one lake of color into the next. Vibrant and transparent color layers over color to create subtle shifts or stark contrasts. Sometimes I scrape out shapes with my pocketknife or push pigment with a old driver’s license. I paint with watercolor because I love the way the pigments move, blend and settle on the paper.
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My works have exhibited at the Charlotte Mint Museum, Fayetteville Museum, Raleigh Fine Art Society Annual Exhibition, Visual Art Exchange, 311 Gallery, The Block Gallery and the Halpert Biennial at Appalachian State University.
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I am represented by Belle Arts Gallery. 211 Pamlico St, Belhaven, NC, The Shop at GreenHill, Greensboro NC and Mattie King Davis Gallery, 100 block, Turner Street, Beaufort NC 28516.
"I paint with watercolor because I love the way the pigments move, blend and settle on the paper."
