In the Studio With Kerry Louise Bennett

In the act of painting, Kerry Louise Bennett is drawn to objects with a sense of history. An artist based in Sheffield, her imagination latches onto things that others have overlooked, often for the very fact that they have been overlooked. When she takes a break from her work to walk her dog, Bozzie, she may pass an old house which has fallen into disrepair. For weeks afterwards, its restoration will occupy her mind. She will think about repositioning the windows, moving the staircase, considering every last detail. 

“I like things that are a bit mysterious,” she laughs. “After I’ve romanticised something, I can mend it. I can invent a story behind it.” 

As such, many of Kerry’s paintings are a window into the home. Her vivid use of colour and rich texture is inviting and warm. Often, she will experiment with different materials, like coffee grounds and chalk powder combined with paint to deepen this tactile dimension. And yet, the flattened perspective in her work is often slightly removed, as though you are an observer, standing just on the outside of the homely scene she is depicting. “As the youngest of five children, I grew up in a chaotic household where being significantly younger I was sort of an onlooker,” Kerry says of her observational approach. “At a party I’ll still be the person on the periphery, taking it all in, capturing the atmosphere in my mind's eye as the kitchen table - and guests - get messier and more revealing over the course of the evening."

Painting has followed Kerry throughout her life, but she only began pursuing her art practice full time in her forties. In previous lives, she was an upholsterer, a treeplanter, has worked in the charity sector and TV, and studied photography in her thirties. 

Now, her process is intuitive. She’s often drawn to subjects because she wants to tell their story, or have those stories told to her through the act of making. “Painting is like writing,” she says. “I’ll start telling that story, but won’t know where it’s going to go until the painting is finished.” She feels that in the act of painting domestic tableaux, she can make sense of a world which is outside her control, bringing order to chaos and a sense of resolution that can never be achieved in real life.

Her interest in storied objects, particularly those sourced and found, began with visits to country antiques auctions with her mother. “I draw on fragments of memories, or the memory of a feeling,” she says of the vessels and rustic furniture she depicts. A self-proclaimed fabric hoarder, Kerry is also drawn to patterns; particularly to juxtaposed colours and simple geometric shapes. One of her predominant influences is Picasso’s harlequin-style artworks. She is inspired by her own collection of rugs and suzanis, for the stories woven into the fabric. 

For Kerry, her objects - almost rendered two dimensional, but layered to create these rich domestic scenes - live beyond their inanimate state. “Shapes seem to express some living character that a person or an animal might have,” she says. “One person’s placement of an object can change its energy completely. It tells a different story. I love rooms which are cluttered, overflowing with someone's passions.” 

Wherever your eye is drawn, Kerry’s paintings are always a surprising proposition. A sense of wonder in the material world feeds her work, which tells stories where some may not think to look.

Kerry created the artwork for our Festive Wishlist prize draw. We are offering you the chance to win your festive wishlist. There will be 3 winners each week. To enter, choose your wishlist piece here. 

Words by Lauren Sneade.

Photography by India Hobson.