Maria Bennett Hock uses figures and portraits to paint concept pieces that tell a story. A cursory glance will let you see the picture, but not the story; these pieces are to be read. She uses the facial features in her paintings to capture attention and allow the viewer to deduce the story behind the painting.

She enjoys working on multiple projects at a time. She feels very fortunate to have been able to show her work at numerous galleries to include shows in Dupont Circle, Washington DC, Alexandria, Virginia, and Solomon’s Island, Maryland, Cincinnati, Ohio, Sedona, Arizona, Costa Mesa, California, and Charleston, South Carolina, Miles City, Montana and Toyota, Japan.

She is a copyist at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She has found the experience as a copyist to be enormously rewarding. As a copyist she begins by studying the piece to be copied, the artist and does research on the palette used. Visiting the gallery beforehand lets her take notes, study brush strokes and play with color. The gallery provides an easel and a locker to store paints and my canvas. Matching colors and brush strokes she imagines what the master artist must have felt when the composition first came together. It is a magical, albeit challenging, experience.

Along with commissions and gallery exhibits, Maria is a member of the Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists and the Arts Club of Washington DC. She writes a monthly newsletter where she showcases her paintings and works in progress, explaining her process and the stories her paintings tell.

You can view Maria’s work and notes about her artistic journey on her

website bennetthock.com

facebook https://www.facebook.com/mariabennetthockfineart

twitter @bennetthock

Instagram @mariabennetthock