Midnight, 30x24

About Gabrielle Benot

Born in Latvia, Ms. Gabrielle Benot had a natural gift for artistic creativity. From a young age she had a keen interest in sketching, drawing, and sculpting. She matured as an artist over time, often under the guidance of her grandfather, who was a self-taught painter. Eventually she would study fashion design at the Royal Fashion Academy (Margrethe Skolen) in Copenhagen. Several of her teachers include Andrea Rushing, known for his Steampunk aesthetic, and Jeffrey Watts. Aside from her teachers, Gabrielle has also been influenced and inspired by Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Pino Daeni, Nikolai Fechin, Gustav Klimt, Joan Mitchell, Joan Brown , Jean Paul Riopelle to name a few.

Her style reflects an interest in partial figurative representation and a reduction of subject matter into minimalistic elements. Additionally, many of Ms. Benot’s paintings materialize from, and are inspired by a variety of sources; some of these include literature, magazines, and alluring private snapshots based on luxury fashion branding and the equestrian lifestyle. She has used many of these sources to develop a technique of her own that include the use of wet brushes, dry brushes, palette knives, oil pastels, charcoal and whatever else can come to mind as a medium, tool or a collage detail. 

Concentrating on form, color, and a sense of stylistic freedom, Gabrielle uses light and shadow in her images to approach a semi-abstract impressionistic graphic design that has been described as “unsettling,” “accusatory,” “exotic,” and “tastefully erotic.” Gabrielle uses her technique to experiment with abstract forms and non figurative art styles in an effort to reach a kind of fresh, diverse, and emotionally expressive art, that more often than not has a voice of its own and speaks for itself.