few new works.

"lightning", oil on canvas, 16"x20"

"talking to himself", oil on canvas, 36"x36"

finished work, new and titled!

"Red Sweater", 30"x36", oil on canvas

"campfire", 36"x48", oil on canvas

"whoofsh", 16"x20", oil on canvas

"how the light hits your face", 16"x20", oil on canvas

"bad kitty", 16"x20", oil on canvas

"balloons journey", 30"x40" oil on canvas

"the northern lights that never came", 16"x20", oil on canvas

"bouquet", 30"x36", oil on canvas

Every painting that has been posted on this blog in the last month is a work in progress.  As I continually rework and make changes to these paintings, it seems like there is an energy building.  I am thinking about the reworked paintings as containing a potential energy.  All of the underpaintings contributing to this stored energy that is making the painting on the surface, the one the is visible to the eye have a strange pulse.

some reworked paintings. lately I have been enjoying the medium of paint more and more, the physical qualities and the ability for brushstrokes and paint to make a "painting".  revisions and restarting, completely painting over paintings that some would consider finished, is now part of the working process.  a new painting happens so easily and the figure changes it's personality, story.  until the time when it is time to stop.

not yet titled, new work

untitled works on paper, July 09'

 

A Aerially Unborn Moon

bewitch tune tony

Made a few changes to the Untitled painting below.

"Ashore Riders", acrylic on canvas, 16"x20", 2009

"OBE", acrylic on canvas, 16"x20", 2009

Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 16"x20", 2009

Work from "make believe" a group show, September 2009

Excerpt from MFA 2009 catalogue essay, "Studio Space", by Kitty Scott.

It is commonplace to call our contemporary moment a “post-studio” age, and even the most glancing perusal through the monthly journals issuing from New York, London, Los Angeles, and all the other far-flung outposts of taste-making confirms the idea. Their pages are full of shiny fabricated objects and spare conceptual proposals, both of which seem increasingly interchangeable. What is the place of studio practice at such a time? I use the term “studio” here purposefully; I am not inquiring, that is, about the place of a particular technique – say, painting – within this constellation: the death and rebirth of painting has been alternately hailed and decried enough. No, I am curious about the physical space of creation, the atelier, and the role it plays in shaping the art made within. For it seems to me that if we can point to something exemplary, and shared, in this group of MFA graduates from the UVic Visual Arts program, it lies in a spatial paradox peculiar to the studio: namely, that this enclosed area – which was long disparaged within critical art practice for its isolation from the world – is actually a space of exploration. Each of the four artists whose work is being presented here – Allison Cake, Katie Lyle, Shelley Penfold, and Sara Robichaud – have recognized this fact, and for each of them immersion in the studio has opened their work to the widest of horizons.

That is clearly apparent in the paintings of Shelley Penfold, who presents works from a series of canvases made in 2009. Collectively they image parallel universes, a concept that could stand as an emblem for her and her colleagues shared project. Penfold’s universes are mysterious, resonant places, many of which seem to evoke the hidden corners of childhood life. In them, something fragile – a little being, a tiny animal – frequently finds shelter in the protective body of a young person; the atmosphere is both melancholic and tender. The best of them take advantage of the staining effects one can obtain in the application of acrylic paint onto unprimed canvas; here a figure can emerge from a smoky ground, as in Third Universe, where beautiful dark washes provide an indeterminate space for a young boy who lies in his bed, his right hand gently grasping a small bird whose head peeks out over his besweatered hand (a lovely detail). Something of that same domestic atmosphere is found in Sixth Universe, a more playful image in which a vaguely Munch-like personage grins out at us, simultaneously proffering and protecting a round, black object (rock? egg?). Each hints to us of a narrative, engages us in tentative stories whose children are caught between interiority and a relation with the larger world around them.

The following images are from my UVic MFA Thesis Exhibition, "Wigner's Friend".

Sixth Universe, acrylic on raw canvas, 42"x48", 2009

Second Universe, acrylic and oil on canvas, 60"x66", 2009

Ninth Universe, oil on canvas, 36"x48", 2009

Eleventh Universe, acrylic on canvas, 30"x36", 2009

Twelfth Universe, acrylic and oil on canvas, 2009

Fourth Universe, acrylic on raw canvas, 48"x54", 2009

Tenth Universe, acrylic on canvas, 20"x24", 2009

Third Universe, acrylic on raw canvas, 48"x60", 2009

First Universe, oil on canvas, 54"x60", 2009

Contact Information

skpenfold@hotmail.com

CV

Education

 2009 M.F.A, Visual Arts, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC

 2003, B.F.A, Visual Arts, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, B.C

 

 Professional Experience

 2009, Sessional Instructor, University of Victoria, 2nd year Painting.

2002, Curator, Studio Manager, Basic Inquiry Studio, The Vancouver Life Drawing Society, Vancouver, B.C

 

Solo Exhibitions

 2009            “Wigner’s Friend, Main Gallery, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC

 2005            “Shifting Perspectives”, Havana Gallery, Vancouver, BC

 

Group Exhibitions

 2009            MFA 2009, Legacy Gallery, Victoria, BC

 2008            “Make Believe”, East Van Studios, Vancouver, BC

 2008            “Residency Show”, Open Space, Victoria, BC, curated by Sally McKay

 2005             “A Very Special Christmas Show”, Havana Gallery, Vancouver, BC

 2005            “Evolution”, ECI Alumni Exhibition, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, BC

 2003             “ECIAD Graduation Show”, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver BC

"Figurative Painting Exhibition", Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, BC

 2002            “Figuring Painting” Basic Inquiry Studio, Vancouver, BC

 1999            Annual Student Graduation Exhibition, Kwantlen University College, Surrey, BC

 

Publications

2009      “Studio Space” MFA 2009 Thesis Exhibition Catalogue

2005       “Evolution” ECI Alumni Exhibition Catalogue

2005       “Critics Pick”, Clint Burnham, The Province Newspaper, November 25,2005.

 

Awards and Grants

2008            University of Victoria Travel Grant

2008            Jessie Allan Forsythe Scholarship

2008            Audrey St. Denys & M.E Johnson Scholarship