Penny Otwell

Penny Otwell's paintings reveal a colorful, rhythmic and expressionistic response to the landscape. She has been called “a colorist,” but she refrains from categorizing her widely collected work. She is best known for her mountain paintings of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada, but also for her whimsical wildlife-with attitude-paintings.

Otwell has lived, hiked, and painted in the Sierra for many years and has also painted throughout California. In the winter months she can be seen painting outdoors in the Great Central Valley and along the Mendocino coast of California. Spring and summer find her plein air painting in Yosemite Valley, the Eastern Sierra, and Yosemite’s High Country. Her work has received numerous awards and corporate collectors include Patagonia, Inc. and Delaware North Services, Inc.

Teaching for several well-known Yosemite organizations is a focus of the artist when she is not painting outdoors and she also leads guided hikes in the Park. During the school year Otwell volunteers at the local schools for grades 2-12.

ARTIST STATEMENT:
Painting is a lively and engaged act that I practice almost every day. Even when driving down to the Central Valley I usually see something I want to sketch or photograph as a painting idea. Sometimes I paint off the back of my pick-up. There is beauty everywhere.

I’m an oil painter who has turned to acrylics because of so many combinations of mediums. I also have had an adventurous exploration with collage only possible with acrylics and I love juicy thick acrylic colors. Using thin glazes has brought a richness and depth to my work.   Endless possibilities abound with plastic paint!