Penny Gordon-Chumbley
Painter and Cut Paper Artist
"To be an artist is to believe in life."
--Henry Moore
Penny Gordon-Chumbley
Growing up in New Orleans, I knew that I lived in a unique place. That city and its culture enhanced my love of things quirky, obscure and odd. I spent my childhood constructing shoebox villages, populating them with little people and big lives.
Even as a little girl, I read a range of books on people and events that crossed the globe and spanned the ages. Early on, she developed a love for travel, meeting people, observing and paying attention to the small details of life, such as candy wrappers, door knockers, windows, gardens and footwear!
In 2006 after the graduation of my daughter from high school, I enrolled in a painting course with Todd Lowery at Drury University and the planets aligned. Vibrant, squishy tubes of paint and buckets of brushes became the keys that unlocked the doors of creativity.
My influences include: the Fauvists, Georgia O'Keeffe, Emily Carr, Wolf Kahn, David Hockney, Helen Frankenthaler, Paul Cezanne, The Group of Seven, Walter Anderson, Josef Frank and Jane Troup.
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