John Bentley | Artist In Residence
John Bentley
Digital Alchemist
Blending photography with painterly textures, digital layering, and, at times, physical embellishment, Bentley’s images straddle the surreal and the real. He is drawn to ambiguity, tension, and the quiet power of presence. His pieces are not designed to flatter — they are made to provoke, to honour, and to hold.
Bentley’s practice is rooted in studio work but never confined by it. Whether capturing raw expression in-camera or pushing a piece into abstraction through post-production, he remains focused on the emotional pulse beneath the surface. The work is not about spectacle — it’s about staying with what’s uncomfortable, what’s beautiful, and what dares to be both.
Veiled
Photographic, digital & physical mixed media on fine canvas
Swathed in coarse fabric, half-lit and half-forgotten, she sits suspended between exposure and retreat. Her lifted arm becomes a gesture of surrender, of defiance, or perhaps quiet reclamation. Whether physical or emotional, there is something missing here… but not absent. The void is part of the narrative.
She could be in bloom or burning.
The red flare that obscures her face could be read as a crown or a wound, a blossoming or a scar. The ambiguity is the point. This creation pulls us between painterly softness and photographic realism
Her body language is neither submissive nor confrontational. She does not perform. She simply is.
Artwork Title: Veiled
Artist: John Bentley
Medium: Mixed Media Canvas
Size: 60cm x 90cm
Price: £450
Presentation: Unframed, ready to hang
Voltage
Photographic & digital artwork on canvas
Originally captured during a fashion shoot at the studio in 2015, Voltage began as a moment of movement. A fleeting exhale, a twist of hair, a half-formed expression caught in-between. But in post-production, it evolved into something darker… more charged.
Through layered digital enhancements, the subject was transformed. A soft, tempestuous presence became heightened with gothic intensity: deep shadows cloaked the skin, hair exploded like a thundercloud, and sharp, electric blues tore through the background. Streaks of blood red were woven in deliberately — hinting at danger, seduction, and something just out of reach.
The image now holds a cinematic tension. Her mouth is open — not quite a scream, not quite a whisper. Her posture holds energy, her stare is both confrontational and ethereal. There’s no stillness here. Only presence.
Artwork Title: Voltage
Artist: John Bentley
Medium: Archival Canvas rendering
Size: 60cm x 90cm
Price: £350
Presentation: Unframed, ready to hang
Take a look at the others exhibiting this summer
Julia Uttley | Bolton Photographer
Profile image of Julia courtesy Don Tonge Julia Uttley is a Bolton‑based photographer whose work reveals a deep connection to the region’s industrial heritage and moorland landscapes. Born and raised in Lancashire’s Fylde region, she was drawn back north in 2015,...