Margaretann explores themes of decay and remembrance, drawing inspiration from the textures on weathered stone and the atmosphere steeped in history.
Margaretann Bennett RSW is a distinguished Scottish artist whose work spans figurative, landscape, and still life genres, unified by a distinctive approach that balances abstraction with finer detail. Based in Glasgow, her paintings explore profound themes of mortality, decay, and remembrance through richly textured surfaces and evocative imagery.
Educational Foundation
Margaretann's artistic journey began at Glasgow School of Art, where she specialized in printed textiles, graduating in 1991. Rather than pursuing a career in textiles, she chose to develop as a fine artist, enhancing her technical repertoire with printmaking skills acquired at The Glasgow Print Studio. This diverse foundation has informed her unique visual language that combines various media and approaches.
Margaretann Bennett's Artistic Vision
At the heart of Margaretann's practice lies an intuitive approach that reaches beyond straightforward representation. Her work creates deliberate tension between areas of abstraction and precise detail, distilling collected experiences into visual compositions that evoke specific times and emotional states. She describes her paintings as reflections of her own life and relationships, infused with elements of alter ego and shifting moods.
Thematic Exploration
Margaretann's current work focuses on both abstract and figurative subject matter, exploring her passion for themes of decay and remembrance. She finds inspiration in Victorian cemeteries, mourning costume, cabinets of curiosities, and post-mortem photography. These influences manifest in smaller investigative works featuring poignant motifs of tombstones and family crypts—sometimes with faded, stained portraits—and in larger abstract landscapes exploring the rich textures of these environments.
Technique and Aesthetic
Margaretann's paintings capture the essence of weathered surfaces—pitted textures of rust, moss, and verdigris affected by rain and seasonal change. Her technique involves carefully textured paint layered across what she calls 'canvases of remembrance,' creating works that evoke the bittersweet weathering of nature and the feeling of holding onto love despite inevitable loss through the inexorable passing of time.
The relationship between figures in her work often remains deliberately ambiguous, charged with a tense, dark energy. Some of her figures feature tangled, abstracted internal elements, suggesting the body as mysterious and ultimately mortal—surreal and unknowable with a life of its own.
Margaretann's Exhibition History and Recognition
Throughout her career, Margaretann has presented numerous solo exhibitions, including at Graystone Gallery in Edinburgh. She has been a regular participant in prestigious group exhibitions and is represented in public collections at St. Andrews Hospital in Fife and Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh, as well as in numerous private collections throughout the UK, USA, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Italy, Spain, and France.
Awards and Distinctions
Margaretann's significant contribution to contemporary Scottish art has been recognized through numerous awards, including the Mabel MacKinlay Award (RGI, 2011), the Scottish Arts Club Award (RSW, 2010), the Inverarity One to One Travel Award (RGI, 2007), and the Glasgow Art Club Fellowship (RGI, 2000). She has earned the distinction of membership in both the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) and Visual Arts Scotland (VAS), affirming her place among Scotland's notable contemporary artists.