Jane Bennett
1960– · Australian painter of urban and industrial landscapes
Jane Ann Cooper Bennett (born 1960 in Manly, New South Wales) is an Australian painter best known for her views of abandoned industrial and maritime sites in and around Sydney. Born in Manly, she was raised by her mother and grandparents in the family home at Seaforth, as her parents had divorced before her birth. She studied at the Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education, earning a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1982 and a Graduate Diploma in Art Studies the following year.
Bennett is a plein air painter with a strong interest in recording urban renewal as it happens. Her subjects include the Balmain, Pyrmont and White Bay Power Stations, the CSR Refinery, the AGL Gasworks, the Carlton United Brewery, the Eveleigh Railway Workshops, Cockatoo Island and wharves at White Bay, Glebe Island, Barangaroo and Walsh Bay. Notable works include 'Last Hope - Hopetoun Hotel' (2009) and 'The empty wharf from shed 5' (2008).
She was a finalist for the Sir John Sulman Prize in 1986, 1997 and 2008, five times a finalist for the Dobell Prize and six times for the Wynne Prize, and won the Pring Prize for Watercolour in 1990, 1995 and 1996. In total she has won more than 120 art prizes over a career of more than thirty years. Her work is held in collections including the State Library of New South Wales, Artbank and the University of New South Wales.