Alan Bennett: Painting Brunel
Alan Bennett, who retired as Curator of the Beldam Gallery in 2006 after over 35 years at Brunel, painted the University for both the 20th and 40th anniversaries of its Royal Charter. He describes how his focus on University ‘spaces’ reveals the evolving atmosphere and shape of Brunel since the 1980s. “In 1986 I painted a series of views around the Uxbridge campus (page opposite). On seeing these and other paintings in 2006, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Jenks, invited me to make some new work depicting ‘Brunel in the 21st Century’ (this page). A link exists between the 1986 group and the two 2006 paintings as in both it was my intention to make compositions about University spaces. I was interested in the architecture but I didn’t set out to paint ‘portraits’ of buildings. In the 1986 series, I was concerned that to include figures in some of the paintings might distract the viewer from experiencing the mood, atmosphere, shapes and spaces within them. Considerably fewer people were on campus in those days and the ones outdoors were generally walking fairly determinedly between one building and another! Twenty years on the University has greatly expanded and much more conversation and interaction takes place outside, particularly along the central concourse. These elements therefore had to be ‘central’ to the 2006 paintings. Outside my main work at Brunel and in the intervening years I was fortunate to be granted space to continue my private work – painting in the grounds of the University’s Runnymede campus. My principal subjects were the landscape and trees, and here, the freedom to explore the landscape and experiment with painting enabled my work to develop. Manipulation of paint became more attuned to the colours, structures and atmosphere of my subject matter and closer to my thoughts about the nature of my painting.” All the paintings reproduced here are in Brunel University’s Collection of Artworks. Many of Alan Bennett’s works are displayed and enjoyed in buildings and offices across the campus.
16 | Brunel Link 2010
2006