ELIZABETH BENNETT

Elizabeth Bennett (b. 1943) is a painter of erotic nudes and other subjects.  Her work is rendered in pastels.  It has been featured in Playboy, Cosmopolitan, the New York Times and various publications.  In 1981an exhibition of her pen and ink portraits that had been published in the New York Times was staged at Niagara Community College.  Born in New York City, she always knew she wanted to be an artist.  She began painting at age 5 when she was given a set of oil paints by her parents.  Later she studied at Parsons School of Design.  Chuck Natoli, the fashion illustrator, was a mentor, and she was a trainee in the fashion advertising department of JC Penney’s.  For a time, in the 1980’s, she lived in Hong Kong.  Later she had a home and studio on the East Coast

I have loved Bennett’s nudes since I first saw them in Playboy in the 1970’s.  They are gorgeous.  An artist who should be better-known

Two quotes:

Drawing is very intimate.  The women you see here were friends to begin with or they become friends.  Many of them agreed to pose in return for one of my sketches.  We exchanged time.  Every drawing was a cooperative effort, something that we worked toward through the evening.  Something worth sharing.

I call these sketches exploratory drawings.  I wanted to study the peaceful eroticism that comes over a women’s body in repose.  The models would arrive at the studio about 10 PM.  We’d share an Irish coffee, look at first editions of Beardsley, Rackham & Dulac, then they’d relax, fall asleep, dream.  The transformation was close to the change you see in a lover after making love.  The devils in them would disappear.  Sleep is a mystery.  Sometimes I would work until morning, trying to capture that magic, that beauty.