my paintings this year look to the “so muchness of the world” as i found myself
increasingly attracted to, and interested in displays of all kinds. from the flowers in the
shops, to the cakes in the case, the landscape array of gardens, signage and seafood
on ice. everywhere i look, so much to look at.
i had been painting at home for seven years and moved my practice back to the studio
in January 2012. i became ill from living with the constant exposure to solvents, and
as my health improved and i got out into the world it opened as a giant lotus flower
welcoming me back with visions of wonder and colour and delight. overwhelming, “the
so muchness of the world”
for me, the beauty of painting lies in the large vocabulary of painterly marks, colours,
and techniques which can be used to express both the intrinsic qualities of the subject
and a sensitive, emotional response. i am always exploring the medium of oil paint and
pushing at the boundaries of representation, so that the marks and colours flirt with
abstraction while still maintaining recognizable imagery. the textural quality of the
paintings render them “not friendly to photo-documentation”, intentionally so- in the
words of the late Robert Hughes paintings are meant to be seen by one viewer at a
time, unlike mass media and the commercials which grout it. in this day of the
internet, and the bombardment of imagery, my paintings are not intended for mass
reproduction, but to be viewed intimately, and in person. i am indebted to Gerhard
Richter’s ideas around style, “style is violence” he wrote. which has opened up the
door for me to explore subject matter on it’s own terms, with its own painterly
possibilities.
penny eisenberg 2012
“... it's like I'm stuck inside a painting
That's hanging in the Louvre
My throat starts to tickle and my nose itches
But I know that I can't move.” – bob dylan