Local artist at home with nature
By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

MICHAEL PICARELLA/The Acorn THE GREAT OUTDOORS-Local artist Earl Bennett relaxes best outdoors; here in the backyard of his home near Malibou Lake. Next to him is his newly printed painting, "Storm Over Triunfo."

Many artists sell their work for recognition and others make a living on their sales. Agoura resident Earl Bennett, 82, has painted since he was a boy and recently made a print of a work of art he began almost 25 years ago called "Storm Over Triunfo." But he’s not looking to become a successful artist; rather he has something to say.

"Storm Over Triunfo" is a landscape painting depicting Malibou Lake of the Santa Monica Mountains with a storm moving in overhead. El Greco’s painting, "Storm Over Toledo" (that artist’s only landscape) was an inspiration for Bennett when he painted "Storm Over Triunfo." In fact, he purchased a framed copy of El Greco’s painting and based his picture measurements on the size of the frame.

"It’s a painting about the mismanagement of our natural resources," Bennett said. "It’s actually a very angry painting." Bennett wants people to realize that the beauty of nature must be maintained, he said.

"We let the brush grow and we let the brush grow," Bennett said, "and we don’t invest any money in controlled burning and then when fire gets away from us, we can’t stop it and the fuel is so tremendous that it burns even the roots. And plants and brush won’t grow back."

Controlled burning, on the other hand, he said, would simply burn the dead cover and after a rain, it will grow back in full. A fire hasn’t burned in that area for a long time, Bennett said, and if that brush were to catch fire, it might be as powerful as an atom bomb, he said.

Bennett is passionate about maintaining nature, he said. "I was forever sketching and photographing the canyons to do the painting. And I’ve been in those canyons when I was younger," he said, "and it was so beautiful—it was like delicate Japanese gardens—with pools and waterfalls and moss." It should be kept that way, he said.

Bennett hopes people will find the importance of the painting and help protect nature.

Earlier this month, Frames By You in Thousand Oaks began selling exclusive limited edition lithographs of the painting. The pictures are 26.5 inches by 30.25 inches and sell for $75.

Bennett never made his living as an artist, he said, but rather as an entertainer with the Spike Jones Orchestra for many years when he was a young man, an editor on the Mr. Magoo cartoons and various other jobs in the entertainment industry.

Bennett is fast to mention how proud he is to appear in a book about Spike Jones called "Spike Jones, Off the Record: The Man Who Murdered Music" by Jordan R. Young. "I think this is a great book because I’m in it," Bennett jokes.

Bennett studied art with Thomas Hart Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute when he was a young man. In the 1940s he made miniature landscapes in watercolor and sold them for a dollar apiece.

He also made slightly larger paintings for Benton’s dealer, the Associated American Artists Galleries in New York, for $25 each, keeping $17 for himself.

Bennett was declared legally blind about three years ago when he acquired macular degeneration. He can’t drive or read or paint anymore, but can still make his way around his home near Malibou Lake. He has only peripheral vision.

"I don’t wish this upon anyone, but it’s okay because I had a lot of good years," Bennett said. "I got to do lots of painting and I lived a good life and I’m not complaining."

Beside being with his friends, Bennett loves sitting outside and watching nature.

He anticipates the printing of another painting he made, which he said is the opposite in emotion of "Storm Over Triunfo." This new print is a painting he made before "Triunfo" and it’s called "Fire Spring."

To purchase "Storm Over Triunfo," call Frames By You at (805) 495-8965.