Brian Bennet FROI, MA (Oxon), NS, Hon UA

Brian Bennett FROI

Born in 1927. Studied at Magdalen College School, Oxford, where he came under the influence of the late Peter Greenham RA and subsequently at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he obtained an Honours Degree in History.

  • Director of Art at Berkhamsted School, Hertfordshire, 1957 – 1987.
  • Elected to the ROI 1972. Served on Council 1975 and thereafter.
  • Vice-President of the ROI 1982 – 1988.
  • President of the ROI 1988 – 1995.
  • Past President and then Fellow of the ROI from 1996.
  • Hon. Secretary ROI 1995 – 2000.

Exhibited at

  • The Royal Academy
  • Royal Society of British Artists
  • Royal Society of Marine Painters
  • New English Art Club
  • National Society
  • United Artists
  • Royal Institute of Oil Painters

Governor of the Federation of British Artists 1990 – 1996. Winner of Stanley Grimm prize at the ROI exhibitions in 1979, 1985 and 1992. (This prize is awarded to the artist whose work gets the most popular vote from viewers. Work in many private collections in the USA, Japan, Europe and the UK including those of HRH The Prince Edward, HRH The Duchess of Gloucester and the Duchess of York. Essentially a landscape painter, he works almost exclusively with a painting knife. He has recently produced a book ‘A Painter’s Year – Twelve Months in the Chilterns’ written by himself and containing over 80 reproductions of his paintings of the Chilterns throughout the calendar year. He is also the author of ‘Oil Painting with a Knife’ published by Search Press. The woods and waterways of the Chiltern Hills where he lives, and the panorama of the Vale of Ayelsbury form the favourite subjects of a great deal of his work with particular emphasis on the wild flowers that grow in the area.

Examples of work