The work: David Bentley, Rock Pool, 2021. Oil on canvas, 122 x 122cm. Courtesy: the artist.
Having initially worked to figuratively portray the landscape, David Bentley’s transition to abstraction has signalled a change in how he incorporates the environment into his work, and his paintings are now tangibly formed by the forces of nature. As can be seen in Rock Pool, Bentley now layers his canvas with numerous laminations of thinned oil, letting colours ebb and flow with one another. Then the artist leaves the saturated canvas to the elements, leaving it outdoors to absorb the wind and dew as it slowly dries. One can physically see the movement of water and air on the canvas, leaving a network of marks and grooves, revealing buried layers of paint. This synergy of artist and environment is matched by the artist’s use of colour, with Bentley choosing to couple a field of blue with its complementary colour orange, the layers seeping into one another as they diffuse across the composition. The two hemispheres of the work transition in a blooming haze, combining in places to create a briny green that no doubt gave rise to the work’s title. By confining himself to abstraction, Bentley allows the environment he cherishes to speak for itself, manipulating the surface of his canvas and conjuring memories of the place of its creation.