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About Bennecelli's Art
After 50+
years of studying, practicing, and teaching
art, Bennecelli was inspired by a vision in
a dream in 2020 of an enchanting,
illuminated object which twisted and turned
and resembled a DNA double helix embellished
with colorful, floral elements. That vision
was the inspiration for him to create a
series of well over a hundred paintings on
the theme of what he calls "Luminous
Streams.#
He views his paintings two ways -- first, as
beautiful, engaging decorative designs and
second, in more depth, as images that
portray elements of a reality and forces of
nature beyond the realm of the five senses.
It is a transcendental vision which is a
prime example of the benefits to both mind
and body revealed through the recent
research in the fields of neuroaesthetics
and neurographics.
To be precise, the major theme of
Bennecelli's art is the timeless beauty of
the rhythmic energy of life uniting art,
music, and dance through expressive lines,
textures, and radiant colors. This is
portrayed in a calligraphic form which
engages the mind in very positive ways.
Perhaps surprisingly, he does not consider
his paintings to be abstract art, but
rather, he sees them as embodying a new
vision of reality, revealing the energy and
forces at work throughout all existence.
Indeed, his art is all about a vision that
corresponds on one level to quantum physics
string theory as well as advanced biology
and psychology.
He believes it is important that we balance
the sciences with the arts, and this is
exactly what his art does.
The “Luminous Streams” paintings are all
created intuitively and spontaneously with
minimal preliminary sketches or plans. In
this way, they bring to consciousness,
images (just as the vision in his dream) of
reality perceived by the subconscious mind.
His art has become his teacher and mystical
guide -- presenting a way for him to gain
insight and to grow in his awareness of our
beautiful, shared reality beyond the realm
of the five senses.
Each painting is composed of just four lines
(red, blue, green, and white). These colors
are symbolic of emotions, intellect and
spirit, physical being, and the self. Four
is a significant number, e.g., four
fundamental forces of the universe, four
points on a compass, four seasons of the
year, four classical elements, etc.
Each of the four lines enters and exits the
canvas at the edges. This implies that the
configuration of lines within the limits of
the canvas is part of a much larger, even
infinite, network.
These paintings are amazingly luminous,
something which unfortunately cannot be
photographed accurately. Their luminosity
was created using a five-hundred-year-old
technique of applying layers of transparent
paint over a brightly colored ground to
achieve what has been called the "Venetian
Glow.” The technique was developed by the
Renaissance painters of Venice, Italy.
Bennecelli's color palette is based on a
color system of four complementary pairs. He
does not use the traditional red-yellow-blue
primary system. In fact, he developed his
own system after studying color properties
extensively as they relate to the spectrum,
our vision, and color mixing. He has studied
all the major color systems including
Ostwald, Munsell, and Birren.
In addition to the shapes created by the
four lines, there are two additional
elements in his paintings.
First, there are small dots extending from
the forms into the black void of the
background. These imply rotation and help us
see that the forms exist within the
background and are not simply cut-outs
sitting on top of the background.
Second, there are vertical or horizontal
strips in many of the paintings which appear
to contain archaic writing. These strips are
darkly subdued in color and at first are not
usually noticed. They offer a contrast
between the organic forms and the geometric,
the emotions and the intellect. They also
imply that there is an important message
contained within the paintings which is both
ancient and mysterious. The strips add a
sense of the mystical to the whole
composition.
These paintings are truly different from
Bennecelli's previous work over fifty years
which includes calligraphy, realistic
portraits in oils and pastels, pen and ink
illustrations, monotypes, and geometric
shaped canvases. He views his artwork for
the past four years as the realization of
his lifelong quest to create art that is
truly authentic and meaningful. Thankfully
it has also been enthusiastically received
by the public.
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