Nicola Bennett: Edible Abstraction

Nicola Bennett is a New Zealand painter, galleried artist, and teacher whose abstract work draws from the colours, textures, and sensory pleasures of the edible world. In this conversation, Nicola shares how flavour and felt experience become the doorway into abstract painting - and how repetition, mark making, and a willingness to stay with uncertainty are what ultimately reveal your own unmistakable visual language.

Show Notes

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Your visual language is already within you - through deep repetition and genuine curiosity, you uncover what is distinctly yours rather than constructing it from the outside in.

• Abstraction begins with the senses, not the subject - learning to respond to felt experience, memory, and colour rather than reference images frees your work from imitation and opens it to something entirely personal.

• Getting comfortable with discomfort is part of the process - the paintings you feel most frustrated with often become the ones you love most, because breakthroughs live just beyond the point where most people stop.

• Mark making is your artistic handwriting - developing a personal mark-making practice gives your work a recognisable quality that no course or style trend can replicate

• A strong community accelerates learning - being exposed to how others solve problems, talk about their work, and evolve their practice teaches you a new visual language faster than working in isolation ever could.

Nicola's abstract painting course with Take Two is called Edible Abstraction - Flavour Inspired Painting.

During the live interview, we shared some images of Nicola’s artwork. Since you’re listening to the podcast version, we’ve made these images available for you below. 

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Explore the images from this episode: