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