BA of fine Arts COFA BA of Design NIDA Diploma of Education UWS
Gallery Representation
Frances Keevil
KAB Gallery
Artistic Background
Penelope has had an extensive and varied career in the arts spanning a period of some 20 years. She completed a degree in Fine Arts in Sydney at COFA at a young age which was followed shortly by a degree in Stage and Costume design which she completed at the highly prestigious acting school, NIDA. She worked for several years through to her thirties in Sydney as a designer, concept illustrator and model maker before finally completing a Diploma of Teaching in Visual Arts which has allowed her to finance her foray into her own art practice.
Today Penelope works from her studio in rural Grose Vale NSW, where she lives with her furniture designer/maker husband Darren Oates and at the moment, one dog.
www.penelopeoatesart.com
Material and Conceptual Practice
Penelope’s technical approach to her practice is highly layered with its mix of coloured inks, acrylic paint and a trusty soldering iron which allows her to lightly etch into both timber panels and canvasses resulting in a distinctive, tapestry-like patina of overlapping lines. This introduction of a soldering iron into her artmaking practice has allowed her to introduce more of a drawing element back into her work and she sees herself as more of a ‘mark-maker’ than a painter.
Inspiration is drawn from Penelope’s own experiences and memories of the landscape with its shifting colours, merging textures and evocations of place and time. She feels a strong connection to the works of 19th Century metaphysical poet John Keats whose poetry expresses the notion of being able to transcend our negative experiences of the world by contemplating upon ‘a thing of beauty’ In this sense her work provides her with an escape from the strains of an otherwise contemporary urban existence and allows her to indulge in the practice of making, often a very solitary experience but one which suits her perfectly. Art does, however, need an audience to give it meaning and context and it is every artist’s joy when that connection is made between the viewer and their work of art.