iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I finished and signed this in the studio yesterday. First time painting peonies so it was nerve wracking. I love this deep pink-red colour of peonies so much I had to give it a go. Peonies 18x24, Oil on wood panel

Painting 18x24, Oil on wood panel. A large barrel shaped white vase off centre to the left with four large deep red peonies. One blossom is out of frame to the left. One blossom points up at centre, one is as big as a bowl, fully open on the right. One is an unopened bud hanging down on the vase to the left. Lots of dark green leaves. Pale blue-grey-yellow background.

Close-up of the top blossom. It's pointing up, has a few petals unfurling, two starting to separate from the main part of the blossom. Green leaves and stem below.

Close-up of the forward facing blossom on the right. Most petals are close to the centre but open enough to show the tiny petals at the centre.

Close-up of the unopened bud. It's round, partially encased with green leaves and just a bit of the red petals showing through. The vase behind it is white, has vertical grooves.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Yesterday's sky and a painting from a day years ago, after a storm. The sky remains my muse.

Grey sky over the Toronto skyline. Grey swirling clouds, orange at the horizon.

Painting in rough knife strokes, grey swirling clouds over dark treetops skyline.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

New painting underway in the studio. This is the second day when it looks like shit while I'm working on it, I go home all discouraged then look at the photos and find it's actually not bad at all. Whatever, eh? Just keep painting.

Painting on a wooden easel. The panel is 18x24, vertical, sketch in deep blue of three peonies in a vase. Two are fully open and one is still just a bud. The vase is barrel shaped and is to the left of the panel. One large peony hangs to the right. The background has been painted a very pale blue-grey. The vase, flowers and leaves currently unpainted.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Thanks to everyone who came to my art show. It was a good one for me - lots of people, lots of love, buyers who bought. Now all that's left is the carrying, driving, delivering and then some rest. xo

Photo of about 20 paintings wrapped in white plastic held together with red tape, stacked leaning against empty walls in the gallery. The walls are white with hanging wires hanging down .

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Here's a little visit with my painting "Rouge River Skate" with commentary on the little vignettes that drew me to paint this scene. This painting is part of my exhibition at Leslie Grove Gallery in Toronto until Sunday, July 19. Drop by to see it and the rest of the show if you're in the area.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Today is opening day of my art show in Toronto. For the first time I'm showing my skating/hockey paintings and two textile pieces along with the paintings that inspired them. If you're in the Toronto area, drop in and say Hi. Leslie Grove Gallery 1158 Queen St East, Toronto July 8-19

Poster for the show featuring a painting of a highway disappearing into the horizon, water tower on the left, orange, yellow and pink sky above. Text is on the top in a dark green block.
"Winter and Other Seasons
New Works by Nancy Bennett
July 8 - 19, 2026
Leslie Grove Gallery
1158 Queen St. East, Toronto"

View of one gallery wall. It's white. On the wall are five large 36x40 paintings of winter scenes.

Me, hot and sweaty after hanging the show, standing in front of a 6'x6' textile piece in autumn forest colours. I'm wearing a black tshirt and pants, arms raised in triumph, smiling. I'm a short, pudgy woman in my 60's, hair pulled back, glasses.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

They discontinued my favourite linen capris so I made a pattern from my last pair, bought fabric and made my own. I don't really enjoy sewing but I REALLY enjoy not being dictated to by stores and fashion people. Cost is about $75/pair, time was about 5 hrs. They'll last me for years.

Pattern for pants laid out on brown fabric on a bamboo floor. The pattern pieces are white paper. A pair of scissors on top of one piece that is partially cut out.

A stack of cut out pieces of fabric, on a table in front of an old Singer sewing machine. In the background are a dark wood cabinet and an old black woodstove not connected.

Brown pants sewn together, inside out, laying on the floor. Large pockets.

Me standing on my balcony among pots of flowers and an inukshuk. I'm wearing a black tshirt and loose brown capris. I'm in my 60's, shoulder length brown hair, glasses. Hands in my pockets. Of course I put pockets in them.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

If you see this, post your blue art 💙

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

We may be going down to single digits tonight but at least we got this first.

Swirling clouds in the sky over the Toronto city skyline. The sun is setting out of frame to the right. The clouds are pink and grey against a blue sky, swirling at the horizon the fanning out like an explosion up into the sky. The city can be seen along the bottom edge, dark, low buildings on the left, some trees, then in the distance on the right side are the office towers downtown and the CN Tower.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I painted these two a few years apart but they always go together so well. I seldom show one without the other. Killarney and Valley.

Large painting 36x40, vertical, hills slanting down to the right, water in the distance. The hills are green with undertones of yellows and orange.

Large painting 36x40, vertical. A deep valley between two hills/mountains. Purple mountains in the distance with a small strip of pale blue sky along the top. The valley is green with red undertones on the right and dark grey gravel and stone wall on the left. There is a patch of bright green grass on the right. A small silver creek winds its way long the bottom of the valley.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

I am officially between studios. I've been painting in the studio on the left for almost 9 years, as evidenced by the paint around the edges. The new studio feels strange and unsettled but I think that will change. It'll grow on me.

Corner of a room. Wooden floor, beige walls. Paint in a square shape on one wall from the edges of paintings I've painted there. A paint splattered table top leans agains the wall on the left, a stack of wood panels leans against the wall on the right. A small wooden table in the foregorund with some tape, toilet paper and a plastic bag on it. Grey carpet underlay on the floor.

A room with grey carpet on the floor, white walls. A beige rug is on top of the carpet. Stacked along the wall are a painted panel, a bag, a paind box, a disassembled bookcase, wood panels, an easel, a folding chair and two blue bins stacked on the right side.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

From Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal MP for Davenport in Toronto

Julie Dzeroicz
Member of Parliament for Davenport
Today, Ontario's Premier announced that the province will introduce legislature to take over the City of Toronto's role in the Billy Bishop Tripartite Agreement and take ownership of city-owned lands at the airport.
Here are the facts:
1. No matter what the Premier says, the Province of Ontario alone (once they upload from the City) cannot make any operational decisions about the Billy Bishop Airport. Under the Tripartite agreement, any changes to the airport require unanimous approval from all three Tripartite partners - the Toronto Port Authority, the City/Province, and Transport Canada.
2. The current runway extension is a Transport Canada safety requirement - it does not in any way open the door to jet operations.
3. Transport Canada has committed to meaningful consultation with residents, community groups, local businesses, and Indigenous partners on any changes or proposals moving forward.
There is a big difference between what the province is announcing and what they have the authority to do.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

This painting/textile pairing were both inspired by the beautiful colours of the trees at Oxtongue River near Algonquin Park. They'll be exhibited together in July, then the painting will head to the buyer who's graciously agreed to wait till after the show for it. 🙏🏻

Me sitting in the hallway at my studio. Wooden floors, grey brick walls with a 6ft wide archway. A painting, 27x30, of trees in autumn colours under a bright blue sky, hangs on the left. A textile piece, 66"x66" hangs in the archway. The piece is made of 2" strips of fabric in oranges, yellows, greens and reds and few strips of blue mimicking the painting. The strips are woven with 2" gaps between them so the hallway behind the arch can be seen. I'm dressed in black, hair pined back, glasses, seated in a folding chair with my legs crossed.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

The fabric piece that I'm painting to on that one is this -

Me holding up a textile piece, 5'6"x5'6", woven strips of fabric with gaps between the strips. The fabrics are the colours of Monet's water lilies - pale blue, dark blue, pale green, dark green, pink, turquoise.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

I'm working on two very different pieces of art in two locations. Each one tickles a different part of my brain.

Large painting, 27x30, horizontal, hanging on a paint splattered studio wall. The painting is of trees lining a lake, reflected in the water. The trees are green, the sky and water are blue. The style of the painting is very hazy and soft.

A grid of 2" strips of coloured fabrics in an old black Singer sewing machine. The strips are autumn leaves colours - orange, yellow, red, deep green, pale green. The strips are woven with 1 1/2" gaps between.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Progress report. Where we're going and how we get there from here. #textileart

4" strips of fabrics in fall forest colours piled haphazardly on a cutting board.

The strips have been sewn into tubes and are inside out. The 6 ft long strips are piled up on my ironing board.

The strips are turned right side out and laid across my ironing board. L>R. Golden yellow/brown, light green pattern, white pattern, orange and red pattern, dark green leaf pattern, bright pinky red foliage pattern, bright yellow, orange, sky blue.

One strip of each colour is woven with a 1" gap between. Five strips in each direction.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Best way to brighten up a grey winter afternoon? Go to an art show! New work by artist Shinae Kim at Christopher Cutts Gallery in Toronto.

Large painting on a beige wall above a pale wooden floor.
A tangle of people and horses in shades of predominantly orange with shadows in blue and green. Looks like a battle.

The end of the gallery space set up for sound. Two 4 ft tall speakers about 8 ft apart with metallic red horns at the top. Between them are black receivers and disc players. Behind them on a white wall is a large painting 48x48? with swipes of bright cheering colours on a black background. In the foreground is a red Persian carpet.

The artist (Shinae Kim in orange dress) with an admirer, posing for a photo in front of a large painting, predominantly green with figures lounging and standing among the greenery.

Poster for the show with black print around a blue painting.
Shinae Kim
Star Light, Star Bright
Feb 21 - Mar 14, 2026
Opening Sat February 21 2-6pm
Christopher Cutts Gallery (21 Morrow Ave)
www.shinae.ca

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Ok I cleaned it up a bit on the second sketch. Not sure where I’m going with this. Oh and that’s her mouth, not a moustache. I need to fix that next time.

Sketch in black pen on white paper in a 9x12 spiral bound sketch book. A woman stands holding two babies, a toddler standing clutching her leg. She has a combative stance, holding the children protectively. Her other arm is extended, holds a sword. Two businessmen in suite are impaled on the blade of the sword. She’s standing in a street with office towers behind her. Her mouth is badly drawn, looks like a moustache.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Can’t sleep. Those fuckers. All those poor children. Tear it all down. We’re coming for them.

Sketch black ink on paper, very rough. A woman holds two babies in one arm while a toddler clings to her leg. Her face is monstrous angry. She hold a sword with the bodies of two businessmen impaled on in. Two more bodies on a spear or pole behind her. Office towers line the street to the left. Larger angry vicious face behind her.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Prep-work photos are way less exciting than the painting ones but you can’t have one without the other. This is the second of three layers of gesso which keeps my oil paints from soaking into the wood panel and rotting it over time. My process takes 3 days. Gesso-dry-gesso-dry-gesso-dry-paint.

Three wood panels on a dark wood table. The panels are L>R, 36x40, 12x24 and 12x16 and painted with white gesso.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

The ghosts of paintings from the past 8 years. I've caught myself flat-footed without prepped panels for a new piece so it'll be like this for a week or so. #artstudio

Beige studio wall with two brackets to hold wood panels and paint streaks around where the edges of different sizes of panels have been over the year. A few templates for circles are taped to the wall on either side.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Hey! That's my painting in the background of this CP24 coverage of the show at Leslie Grove Gallery in Toronto. Th!nk P!nk is on till Sunday. It a beautiful multi-media exhibition of artwork featuring the colour pink.

TV screen on a brick wall in a restaurant. Seating and a green vine along the bottom of the photo. The screen is divided into multiple panels for weather, news, stock market info. Top right is a video of two women dressed in pink standing in front of a large painting of a Toronto street scene.
The painting is 36x40, Oil on wood panel, titled "Under and Over It All"
Leslie Grove Gallery is at 1158 Queen St. East in Toronto.
The show is on till Sunday, Jan 25/2026

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I would have put the dingo story above Trump but it’s still an odd summary for the state of the world today.

Screen capture of my home page
Tue Jan 20
4:59
The Apple News Catch-up
“The old order is not coming back,” Carney says at Davos. Trump shares altered map of U.S. flag covering Canada. And teen in dingo incident ID’d.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

That’s a better white on the birch trees. Just a few more touches and it’ll be complete. #workinprogress #art

Mostly complete painting of trees in fall colours with white birch trees in the foreground.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

This was pretty scary to paint after all these weeks painting autumn colours. I need to do more work on the birch trees but I can see where I’m going. #artstudio

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

I felt like I woke up in a Charles Dickens novel this morning. Grey skies, snowy rooftops, dark dreary homes, smokestacks belching into the sky. In real life that smoke is steam that dissipates into the sky and the houses and businesses are about to perk up. #Sunrise #Toronto

Sun rising over an urban residential/industrial neighbourhood. Grey sky of curdled clouds which slice open near the horizon. A strip of pale blue sky with the sun on the left between upper and lower cloud plains. In the foreground, 2-3 story houses and businesses are dark and have snow on the rooves. On the right, two large distant smokestacks belch smoke/steam into the sky which drifts towards the left.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

New work about to begin. This is the fourth step with this image. It's a lot of work but it'll be worth it. #TextileArt

Lengths of fabric folded into rectangles. Each colour has a pattern. The colours are dark green, golden yellow, white with black marks, honeycolour, pale green, orange, orange with dark red leaf pattern, pink red, all against a pale blue across the top.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

This is still a work-in-progress but I love it so much, I’m not only afraid every time I work on it, I’m afraid to breathe around it. If I manage not to wreck it, it’ll be off to @paeartforacause.bsky.social for the 2026 fundraiser.

Small painting, 5x7, Oil on paper taped to a board with yellow masking tape. The painting is of a woman dressed in a short silver dress. Her red hair is in an up-do, she has one hand against the right wall as she reaches down to adjust the strap on her silver shoe, leg bent to bring her foot up so she can reach it.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

What was your #childhoodcinema? The old Roxy on Main St. in Markham. Sat matinée was 25 cents in the late 60s. In the 70s walking home after the Friday night show was a great time for teen romance. The building was the original Town Hall before it became a theatre. I think this photo is 40s or 50s.

Black and white photo of a brick two storey, flat roofed building on a paved street. One story building on the left (Bank of Montreal). Two story flat roofed building to right with a two story porch and awning in front (Franklin Hotel). The theatre building has the original building, brick, with four small windows across the front wall. A brink extension one story tall has been added to the front, sticks out about 10 ft to the sidewalk. An external enclosed staircase runs up the outside of the wall on the left. A smokestack runs from the roof of extension, up the front of the second floor external wall. There's a marquee with a sign in lights spelling ROXY. Display cases for posters on either side of a four door entry.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

The Opening Reception for "Th!nk P!nk" at Leslie Grove Gallery in Toronto was hopping! Pink is so outspoken and uplifting, it was a pleasure to be in the midst of so many pieces centred on this influential colour. It's on till Jan 25. Go see it and prepare to be happy. #CanadianArt #pink

A few people standing in front of my painting on the wall. My painting is large 36x40, a street scene with pink net overlay. The people are in winter coats, holding drinks, holding up cameras, chatting.

View into the room. Four 12x12 paintings hung stacked on the wall. Beside it a woman faces away from us wearing a white shirt and jeans, short hair dyed bright pink, The room is crowded beyond her.

Me standing, smiling in front of my painting. Painting is of a downtown street scene with a net of pink triangular shapes. Me - woman in my 60's, brown hair pinned back, glasses. Wearing a black tshirt with with the names of Canadian female artists on the front in white letters. Carr& Lewis& Letendre& Wieland& Pootoogook

This is before the gallery got crowded. It was hard to get a clear view of the art. The white walls are lined with pink art in all sizes and shapes.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

This painting is in Th!nk P!nk exhibition at Leslie Grove Gallery in Toronto which opens tonight. This is the process that brought it to life. (Sorry for the bad crop. Maybe opening it up will show the top edge too.) “Under and Over It All” #canandianart #thinkpink

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Pink has played an important role in my work. It is a feminine presence often in places it has to fight to be. I'm happy and proud to have my "Under and Over It All" as part of Th!nk P!nk at Leslie Grove Gallery in Toronto, today till Jan 25. #canadianart

A poster for the exhibition. Bright pink wide border. In the centre is my painting of a downtown Toronto street with office towers on each side. A pink network of triangular shapes covers the entire painting, unclear whether it is beneath the painting of the buildings and street or ontop of it. The text in the border of the poster is
Leslie Grove Gallery
Th!nk P!nk
Jan 7 - 25, 2026
Opening Reception Jan 8

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I was up early this morning. Mostly I don't recommend it but at least there was this.

Sunrise over an urban neighbourhood. Foreground is silhouette of trees, flat-roofed buildings, smokestack and cement tower. The sun is a misshapen ball of yellow at lower centre, distorted by the clouds it's shining through. The sky is bright orange at the horizon but gives way to grey/mauve clouds further up into the sky.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Grey snowy tulips for a grey snowy day in Toronto today. I called these ghost tulips while I was painting them but once it was completed I gave it a more literal title - Tulips, Dark White. It feels serene, wistful and sometimes a little unsettling but I still love it. #paintingflowers #canadianart

Large painting 36x40, vertical. Dark blue background, five white tulips in dark light. Only the edges of some the petals catch the light. The tulips and some leaves are in a dark white/grey vase, barrel shaped with a flared opening and vertical ridges running top to bottom.
The texture is smooth, the strokes of colour extend beyond the edges of the shapes of blossoms, leaves and vase.
The mood is sombre, peaceful and a little unhinged.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I hit a bit of a block on this one but today I decided to just pick up the knife and do something to move it forward. I added some contrasting shades of green to make the light greens less flat. I'm now officially unblocked. #workinprogress #paintinlayers

Large painting, 27x30 horizontal, on the studio wall with flecks of paint on the wall around it. The painting is of trees and sky in autumn, painted in colour block with patches of greens, yellows, orange and red. The clear blue sky is in the top 1/3 of the panel.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

I painted this in 2023. I went directly from my brain to paint without stopping to put words or well-formed thoughts around it. Viewers were disturbed by it but it held their attention for longer than prettier paintings. I don't often show it because it's so unsettling, but this morning, here it is.

What Are You Looking At?
27x30, Oil on wood panel

Some people look at this painting and see the winter snow-covered landscape with a weak winter sun trying to shine through. Some see the red net as a hostile barrier that obstructs the view and contains the viewer. Each group of viewers thinks the other is clearly wrong, may be pretending just to be contrary. There have been heated arguments at shows and in posts' comments. I have been "corrected" on my explanation and my execution of this work. As the artist and creator this amuses me and annoys me.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Two works-in-progress in the studio. Some small work for a change. #artstudio #workinprogress

In-progress painting 12x16 vertical of a woman in a big winter coat walking down a snow-filled alleyway with red brick buildings on either side. The snow and sky are grey. The woman and the windows and doorways of the building are unpainted. The snow is incomplete.

Oil painting on paper, 5x7 vertical. A woman in a sleeveless dress stands on one foot and reaches down to adjust the show on her other foot, bent up behind her. Yellow walls and a big multi-pa e window behind her. She’s standing on a pale blue carpet. Her hair, dress and shoes are incomplete.

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

I left the studio with three paintings underway and one on its way to a show in the New Year. It feels good! Happy New Year, art lovers! Thanks for you kind words and support through 2025. More good stuff coming in 2026! 🥳

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Nancy Bennett 🇨🇦 @nancybennett.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Even though it's all grey out there, the shades and textures and movement of the greys keep it from being blah.

View of an urban skyline with trees, 2 storey houses, flat-roofed industrial buildings with smokestacks and HVAC units. Smoke drifts from the smokestacks to the left. Above, the sky is grey with soft smears of clouds. The sun burns through, faintly yellow.

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