Libby Bennett (nee Elizabeth Green) was born in Queensland and grew up in suburban Adelaide, South Australia (SA).
She graduated as a Secondary School Art teacher in 1976, and with her husband Nigel Bennett,
taught initially in outback Woomera, SA, before moving to the Adelaide Hills and raising their family
there for the next decade.
In 1990 they moved interstate to New South Wales; first to regional Orange, then to Penrith and the Blue
Mountains. During this twelve years Libby resumed part-time art teaching in three different schools,
before returning to Adelaide in 2002.
After living in various parts of the Adelaide Hills region, she currently calls Crystal Brook (SA) home, and focuses
on her own art practice, working out of her home-based studio.
Libby does not see her life in compartments, but part of the whole, and indivisible as such.
This is reflected in her method of work.
Although she sometimes uses a single medium, the distinctive style that has emerged over the years
is often a subtle meshing of painting, drawing, textile and collage.
Papers, fabrics, hand-stitched elements, drawings, dyes, inks and found objects combine, often as
“fragments”, multi -layered. The works generally have a delicate, detailed quality.
Libby draws her content from the natural world and its history, states and processes. This is often
used symbolically and allegorically to describe, address and reflect unseen realities, in human and
spiritual realms.
Preoccupations with nature’s treasures and oddities may combine with the concepts of home, sense
of place, clothing/covering, journeys and passages. There are often contrasts and juxtapositions of
“darkness and light”, “above and beneath”, and “past and present”.
Libby’s visual narratives are also inspired and informed by Biblical imagery, the environment, and
her family. Meaning is not always apparent on the surface, and may be obtained through greater
considered reflection.
In her words; “My work is full of tears, pain, hope, smiles, dreams, prayers, observations,
imaginations and adorations. I always hope my pictures are like windows, through which Christ may
be seen.”
Libby’s work is held in private collections throughout Australia.
Some of her exhibition highlights include the following;
Finalist in the SA Museum Waterhouse Art Prize; 2006 and 2007
Participant in four Easter exhibitions with Cross Hatch, a group of Christian artists formed within
Hills-Aldgate Baptist Church; 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Solo exhibition in situ at Arcadia Studio Gallery; 2016