"I am a portrait painter because of my passion for the peoples of this world.
I hope my portraits reveal that every person of every race and culture is interconnected, indispensable and radiant with
astonishing beauty!"

 
   
 
   


Stephen Bennett is an American portrait painter living in New York City. He makes annual trips around the world to paint portraits of indigenous peoples. Young, old, joyful, and withered faces populate these vibrant canvases, celebrating a variety of ethnic strains in a tapestry painted with strong brushwork. Stephen's objective is to share his experiences of the diversity of human life. His work has been used to promote and preserve cultures in the United States, Mexico, St. Martin, Panama, French Polynesia, the Seychelles, Tanzania, Namibia, Borneo and Australia. He extends an invitation to all to suggest new ways in which his work can be used as a forum for cultural awareness.

 

In 2001 he spent 7 months painting in Tanzania. In 2002 he spent a year painting the Himba and Kung (San) peoples of Namibia. In 2003 he circumnavigated Australia to learn about, and paint its people. In 2004 he worked on the Island of Borneo and returned there in 2005 to continue exploring south east Asia including remote areas of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea up to 2007.

 

Stephen has keen sense of observation, and an ability to bring out the beauty of a face. He succeeds in his artistic endeavors thanks to his appreciation of human differences, his generosity, and his desire to understand others. He has a special ability to express and bring light to a face by his play with colors. For Stephen, a face is a treasure.

 

His vision is education through art on a global scale. Stephen is driven by a desire to complete an international exhibition of 1000 portraits from the world over, painted by his own hand. This enormous project is ambitious, but needed at a time when the world is particularly conflicted. The common thread throughout his work is to show the beauty in the human face, and beauty is his universal theme that ties us all together. All too often indigenous peoples are pushed to the fringes of modern society. The power of these vibrant portraits and their public exhibition helps return the beauty and relevancy of indigenous people to a genuine level of social and cultural importance, much to the benefit of us all.

Stephen is founder of Faces of the World, a non-profit corporation in the United States with a mission of increasing cultural pride and affirming the importance of indigenous cultures. Faces of the World is funded from the sale of Bennett's paintings, donations and sponsorship. For more information go to www.facesoftheworld.net

Stephen shares,"I am a portrait painter because of my passion for the world's people. My portraits convey a fusion of my feelings for each subject with an intuitive use of color. I intensify them in celebration of that person's existence. I hope my portraits reveal that every person of every race and culture is interconnected, indispensable and radiant with astonishing beauty."