The artist
Lola Bennett
Lola Bennett paints the hour after a city goes quiet. Working from a small studio in Lisbon, she builds each canvas in layers of thinned oil and chalk, scraping back until the underpainting shows through like a memory of the room.
I paint windows because a window is the only honest frame we get. Standing at one at 3am, the street is a stage and the dark is a curtain. The work is about that pause — the half second before a scene explains itself.
- Based
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Contact
- studio@lolupencil.com
- @lolupencil.studio
- Studio
- lolupencil.com
How the work is made
- 01
Ground
Linen is stretched, sized and primed with chalk. The first layer is a neutral wash that will later show through the paint like a memory of the wall.
- 02
Build
Colour is laid in thin layers, each one scraped back with a blade when it dries. Earth pigment is ground on site from the places the paintings describe.
- 03
Finish
The final pass is a drawing in chalk or graphite over dry paint. Works are signed and dated on the reverse, then photographed before they leave the studio.
Exhibitions
Selected group and solo exhibitions. Catalogue PDFs and full CV available on request.
Night Windows
Galeria Corpo, Lisbon
2026
Salt & Ochre
Salt Harbour Arts, Porto
2025
Group Show: New Voices
The Foundry, London
2025
Blue Hours
Online with Casa Lume
2024
In print
“Bennett's darks are never empty — they are crowded with the last of the light.”
“A studio visit that feels like being handed a key to a city at night.”
Commissions and studio visits
The studio receives visitors on Thursdays by appointment. Commission enquiries are answered within a week.