Angela Bennett looks forward to sharing her art with the community Sunday, May 15 from 1-6 p.m. at The Lodges on Seeley Lake.
Watercolor Artist Angela Bennett poses with her Cultural Icon collection of portraits. Bennett encouraged aspiring artists, "The more you push yourself and stay with it, the better you get. I don't believe in the talent theory so much as the sweat theory. And pursue the thing that most interests you. You've got to have a passionate interest in the subject in order to pull it off."
Angela Bennett's Lifetime of Work show includes samples from all her collections.
SEELEY LAKE - Artist Angela Bennett and her work "Watercolors on the Water - A Lifetime of Work" will be presented at The Lodges on Seeley Lake May 15 from 1-6 p.m. The free art exhibit will highlight Bennett's original watercolor paintings from the past 10-15 years.
"This is an opportunity to see nearly the full body of Angela's work – which we usually only see in pieces," said Kerry Bertsch, co-owner of The Lodges and Bennett's daughter. "Many of them have been created right here in her studio on the shores of Seeley Lake. I can't wait to feel the energy of her work all together and how it evolved through the years."
"Our hope is to give back to the community and share the artwork," Bertsch continued. "There will be hors d'oeuvres and drink flowing."
Bennett grew up in an artistic household with her father Sheridan Gibney, a two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter, and her mother Mildred McCoy as an actress. They lived in Hollywood and Humphrey Bogart, Gene Kelly and Cary Grant were friends of the family. Bennett remembers her father's regular meetings with Ronald Reagan through his work in the screenwriter's guild.
"Mother always had art supplies available," remembered Bennett.
Bennett soon got into the habit of drawing and painting. Her mother directed Bennett towards a career in architecture. In a second year architectural design class, Bennett met her future husband Dean.
"In those days architecture had a lot of math in it," said Bennett. "I am not a math person. So I switched to a major in art."
After finishing her art degree from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, the Bennetts moved to Seattle, Washington where Dean built an architectural practice. Bennett did all the illustrations for his designs in watercolor and soon developed a clientele.
Retirement brought the Bennetts back to Montana, buying a ranch near Ovando in the early 1990s.
"The home we designed had a stunning light-filled studio that dispensed with the stressful demands of urban design and replaced them with my first love, the wildly freeing pursuit of watercolor," wrote Bennett in her bio on her website https://www.eleganceoftheimage.com/.
The art show will include Bennett's latest series on Cultural Icons and The Bravery of Youth. Other works are collections of The American West, Competitive Sports, Eyes of the Wild, World of Dance, Dreamscapes and World Landmarks.
The 'Cultural Icons" series was motivated by Bennett's reading of a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt.
"Roosevelt had the most amazing life - so much sorrow and grief and humiliation growing up. I like to paint people I admire," Bennett wrote in a press release.
Bennett's appreciation of cultural icons, including Roosevelt, Gorbachev, Hemingway, Mandela, Gandhi and 11 others, are depicted in her portraits of them. Starting the process with extensive research and reading on each character, Bennett gets to know each one well before beginning the painting.
"They are all world-changers, contributors to the culture and agents of change, people that I deeply admire," Bennett said.
"The level at which you admire the person makes a huge difference in the level at which you can paint them," Bennett added. "It helps to illustrate a person you admire for what they represent, for the accomplishments in their life."
"Her portraits reflect her appreciation she's gained of that person [in the painting]," Bertsch said.
Following the extensive research to get to know the subject, Bennett used a color photograph to paint from. Each icon took three to four days to complete the original.
"The greatest challenge is ending up with a good likeness so that it's recognizable and people know who it is." Bennett added, "Over the years the end product is getting to be a little more predictable."
Bennett's paintings are available as limited editions of 50. Some are also made into notecards. For more information and to purchase her work, visit http://www.eleganceoftheimage.com.
The entire community is invited to "Watercolors on the Water - A Lifetime of Work" Sunday afternoon. The Lodges is located at 2156 Boy Scout Road. For more information contact Bertsch 406-499-0757 or email thelodges@blackfoot.net.
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