After graduating from art school in 1972, Bennecelli distanced himself from the world of fine arts for over forty years. He made this decision for two distinct reasons. Firstly, his creative focus shifted towards teaching, and secondly, he believed that fine art had lost its sense of direction.

Upon reentering the art world, Bennecelli soon realized that his reasons for stepping away had been justified. The art world was still trapped in the same directionless condition as it had been in 1972.

Bennecelli's departure from the art world and subsequent return were driven by a combination of personal and artistic reasons. His dedication to teaching and his belief in the decline of the fine arts as a cultural force led him to step away for ... several decades. However, his reentry into the art world was sparked by vivid dreams that provided him with a renewed sense of purpose and inspiration. These dreams guided him towards the study of sacred texts and presented him with a captivating vision, which he transformed into a prolific series of paintings known as "Luminous Streams.#

Bennecelli views his paintings two ways -- first, as beautiful, engaging decorative designs and second, in more depth, as images that portray elements of a reality and forces of nature beyond the realm of the five senses. This is a transcendental vision from his subconscious -- a way forward for a troubled and uncertain world full of doubts and skepticism and teetering on the edge of destruction of ourselves and the planet.

The major theme of Bennecelli's art is the timeless beauty of the rhythmic energy of life uniting art, music, and dance through expressive lines, textures, and radiant colors. This is portrayed in a calligraphic form which engages our minds in positive ways.

Perhaps surprisingly, he does not consider his paintings to be abstract art, but rather, he sees them as embodying a new vision of reality, revealing the energy and forces at work throughout all existence. Indeed, his art is all about a vision from the subconscious that offers a way forward from our very troubled and even reckless times.

He believes it is important that we balance the scientific objectivity and the arts with a new metaphysical vision, and this is exactly what his art does.

The “Luminous Streams” paintings are created intuitively and spontaneously with minimal preliminary sketches or plans. In this way, they bring to consciousness, images (just as the vision in his dream) of reality perceived by the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is the source of a keen perception of the infinite beyond the limits of the rational, temporal mind.

His art has become his teacher and mystical guide -- presenting a way for him to attain insight and to grow in his awareness of our beautiful, shared reality beyond the realm of the five senses and to achieve a clear vision of a positive future.

Each painting is composed of just four lines (red, blue, green, and white). These colors are symbolic of emotions, intellect and spirit, physical being, and the self. Four is a significant number, e.g., four fundamental forces of the universe, four points on a compass, four seasons of the year, four classical elements, etc.

Each of the four lines enters and exits the canvas at the edges. This implies that the configuration of lines within the limits of the canvas is part of a much larger, even infinite, network.

These paintings are amazingly luminous, something which unfortunately cannot be photographed accurately. Their luminosity was created using a five-hundred-year-old technique of applying layers of transparent paint over a brightly colored ground to achieve what has been called the "Venetian Glow.” The technique was developed by the Renaissance painters of Venice, Italy.

Bennecelli's color palette is based on a color system of four complementary pairs. He does not use the traditional red-yellow-blue primary system. In fact, he developed his own system after studying color properties extensively as they relate to the spectrum, our vision, and color mixing. He has studied all the major color systems including Ostwald, Munsell, and Birren.

In addition to the shapes created by the four lines, there are two additional elements in his paintings.

First, there are small dots extending from the forms into the black void of the background. These imply rotation and help us see that the forms exist within the background and are not simply cut-outs sitting on top of the background.

Second, there are vertical or horizontal strips in many of the paintings which appear to contain archaic writing. These strips are darkly subdued in color and at first are not usually noticed. They offer a contrast between the organic forms and the geometric, the emotions and the intellect. They also imply that there is an important message contained within the paintings which is both ancient and mysterious. The strips add a sense of the mystical to the whole composition.

These paintings are truly different from Bennecelli's previous work over fifty years which includes calligraphy, realistic portraits in oils and pastels, pen and ink illustrations, monotypes, and geometric shaped canvases. He views his artwork for the past four years as the realization of his lifelong quest to create art that is truly authentic and meaningful. Thankfully it has also been enthusiastically received by the public.