ABOUT

WELCOME!

Yeah! I won an award at the Corona Art Association's themed show "Fresh Produce". Check the EVENTS section of my website for more information on current and up-coming exhibitions.

My PORTFOLIO is divided into 5 galleries based on subject matter, with an emphasis on local and natural subjects. Galleries are arranged with the newest artworks in the beginning, and you'll note update times in the gallery preview notes. I try to keep things fresh for my repeat viewers, so bookmark my site and let me know if I'm improving over time!

Contact me about purchasing artwork, or with questions and comments: gingerpena@verizon.net


STATEMENT

I’ve always loved to draw and paint, and though I’ve taken some watercolor classes over the years, I am primarily self-taught. When I joined the Plein Air Artists of Riverside in 2006, I began painting outdoors and found that Nature is a most effective teacher: My painting has improved more in the last two years than it had in the previous twenty!

Some of the credit for my recent artistic development has to go to Fredrix. I discovered their watercolor canvas not long after I began painting en plein air and the change in surface has precipitated a change in methods and style. The canvas allows me to block in large shapes using the traditional watercolor technique of wet-in-wet, then to lift and manipulate pigment with the flexibility of an oil painter. To avoid disturbing underlying paint layers, I apply additional colors in short delicate strokes, much like an impressionist oil painter’s taches. Also like an oil painter, I varnish my finished works and frame them without mats and glass.

There’s a gritty honesty about plein air painting that I like. Although I allow myself to simplify the landscape, to shuffle, mass, eliminate or exaggerate some of its elements, I still aim to maintain the identity of the subject in that present moment, and the core idea that inspired me to paint it. The colors and textures of natural subjects are best observed under natural light. Claude Monet taught us that many years ago with his Grain Stack series. Like him, I want to see clearly, to paint truthfully and to endow humble, everyday objects with the significance they deserve.


AWARDS

• Honorable Mention, the Open Air Art For Open Space Show, co-sponsored by the Redlands Art Association and the Redlands Conservancy, May 2010
• Juror's Choice Award, the Multi-Media Mini Show, Redlands Art Association, April 2010
• Honorable Mention, the Plein Air Artists of Riverside's 5th Annual Paint Out Exhibition, Riverside Arts Project Gallery, April 2010
• Third Place, City of Tustin Plein Air Competition, Old Town Tustin, October 2009
• Third Place in Mixed Media, Associated Artists of the Inland Empire, Victoria Gardens Cultural Center, Rancho Cucamonga, September 2009
• Ampersand Product Award, Multi-media Mini Show at Redlands Art Gallery, February 2009
• First Place, The Redlands Conservancy's Open Air Art for Open Space Show, Redlands Art Gallery, November 2008
• First Place, Fine Art Institute's Open Show, San Bernardino County Government Center Rotunda, November 2008
• Third Place, SOCALPAPA Member's Show, Mission San Juan Capistrano, April 2008
• Honorable Mention, Plein Air Artists of Riverside Show, Riverside Art Museum, February 2008
• Honorable Mention, The Redlands Conservancy's Open Air Art for Open Space Show, Redlands Art Gallery, February 2008