P F Bennett GMA originally studied Art & Design at Salford School of Art. Whilst in a Salford gallery at the time, Bennett met and talked for some time to “a man with snowy white hair”; Mr L. S. Lowry. Still treasuring Lowry’s autograph to this day, Bennett suggests that meeting the artist may have been the catalyst of his artistic inspiration and career.
After leaving college, Bennett took up a position in a Manchester advertising agency making the tea and worked his way up through various agencies to become the creative director. Finally deciding to become a freelance illustrator and designer in the city, he spent a lifetime being paid for his impressive tonal drawings.
In the late 80’s, P F Bennett had a fluid imagination and a young family; he began to design children’s games, of which 12 were published by large games companies.
Describing himself as a petrol head, Bennett began to draw cars for his own pleasure in 1996. With his technical ability, the artist was soon inducted into the Guild of Motoring Artists (GMA) where he was chosen to draw thousands of cars, of which he has sold well over 90,000 personalised prints to date.
In 2015, the Northern Artist saw the three Cunard Queens sail up the Mersey which inspired him to paint for the sheer love of it, as he had done when he was younger. This was to begin Bennett’s journey of discovery as an artist of the ‘Northern School.’
Now, P F Bennett paints from his studio in Lymm, Cheshire, where he uses a combination of watercolour and pencil and continually listens to music. Having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s, the artist recognises that music played a ‘great part’ in his life – especially from that era. Basing many of his paintings on songs that he loves, Paul simultaneously reminisces his days growing up in the North of England. Paul’s northern memories and musical inspiration together achieves a recipe that he uses to execute a charming and beautifully-depicted snapshot, flooded with nostalgia.
