“Studying nature and drawing from life has always been my best teacher.”
Artist Statement
Studying nature and drawing from life has always been my best teacher. Even when I was drawing the school pond in my middle school art class, I remember experiencing a special elevated sense of presence. I still experience this coexistence with my subject when I am painting in a direct approach. I'm committed as an artist, painter, and observer of life.
I enjoy traveling and observing the unusual with the familiar. Learning to slow down and enjoy the moment of now through my art. I have been drawn to the landscape around my rural town all the way to my backyard. Whether it is an animal, still life, or landscape, I am noting color spots, editing what is not important and exaggerating what needs to speak. If you capture the correct warm or cool shapes of color, then you can accelerate light versus shadow.
Color is a constant challenge. That is why it is important for me to continue studying from life. Life and nature are never the same; they will always continue to provide essence for my art. After experimenting and exploring various mediums through years of teaching art, I have chosen oils. The results are stunning transparent oils versus the opaque brushwork. Painterly brushwork creates abstract shapes and textures, which add a heightened emotional surface quality to the final painting.
Artist Bio
Kelly Pennington was born in Ada, Oklahoma with an internal drive to create art. She was fortunate to have had teachers in school that encouraged her creativity and observational skills. These teachers were an influence leading Kelly to want to give back what she was so lucky to have received from them. Kelly dedicated 17 years of her life teaching k-12 arts education in Oklahoma public schools. Her summers were spent attending workshops with renowned artists. Now, she is working on her personal art as a full-time artist.
Kelly works out of an art studio in Ada, OK when she is not painting in the great outdoors. She is motivated by nature and depicts the energy she feels among the colors and abstract shapes in a landscape using oil paint. Kelly orchestrates interesting compositions using colorful expressive painterly brushstrokes honoring mostly nature and Oklahoma landscapes.
Gaining local attention as a professional artist, Kelly is also participating in plein air competitions. She continues to create her own educational curriculum, traveling and studying with professional artists and plein air painting when the weather permits. Kelly believes in plein air painting for the information and energy that a landscape presents within the different seasons. "I believe in capturing these beautiful landscapes and preserving them onto a canvas so that we can enjoy them longer"
Fisher’s Place en plein air
Morningtide
Side Blinder
Doty’s Place en plein air
Before the Bacon en plein air
Cantwell Springs
Near Victor, CO en plein air
Ice Breakers
Sacred Heart, OK en plein air
Barn With A Red Dress On
Palmer’s Place
Texas Stockyards en plein air
Palo Duro, TX
Eagle’s Nest, NM en plein air
