Our Blog

Chella stopped by the other day and brought us some really nice paintings on cigar boxes. They are very reasonably priced too at only $60 each! Each oil painting is done on a panel and attached to the top of the cigar box. Stop by and take a look at these little works of art!

                                         Sierra Stream                                   The Falls

Yosemite Darks

Penny Otwell stopped by the Gallery recently and brought us some new work! These three new pieces, along with many others, can be seen during regular hours.

Aspen Grove - Acrylic On Paper

Penny 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.

First Fall Day - Acrylic On Canvas

Spring and summer find her plein air painting in Yosemite Valley, the Eastern Sierra, and Yosemite’s High Country. Penny's work has received numerous awards and corporate collectors include Patagonia, Inc. and Delaware North Services, Inc.

 

What a great opportunity! With the advent of YouTube we can hear Penny Otwell talk about her life as an artist and how she creates. Plus we get to see her in her own environment, Yosemite! Hope you enjoy!

We recently asked our gallery artists questions to help us get to know the artists we represent better. We thought we'd share with our readers and customers so you'll get to know them too. We'll be doing at least one a month and we'll start with Penny Otwell.

Penny was born in Vancouver, B.C. Canada and raised in Los Angles, California. She currently resides in El Portal which is 14 miles from Yosemite Valley and has lived in this area for 45 years.

Her mother, Helen Loughheed, was a Vancover artist who studied under some of the "Group of Seven" (a group of Canadian landscape painters in the 1920s, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley). Penny is a self-taught painter who gained a great deal of inspiration from her mother and has studied under Ken Auster, Peggy Kroll-Roberts, Alyce Frank and Brian Blood. She has been painting full time for 15 years, drawing Yosemite for over 45 and actually started painting when she was a small child.

Penny says she paints "from the heart" and doesn't usually categorize her work. She has a loose style sometimes and is fascinated with form. Her inspiration is the beauty she see everywhere, both the grand and the mundane. Sometimes the most ordinary can be the extraordinary.

When asked what kind of music she listens to in the studio, Penny said she likes it all, rock and roll, classical, chanting monks, musicals, piano concerts, blues and jazz. It's a mood thing! 

Penny has other interests beside art. She also loves science, natural history, gardening, hiking, some cooking, movies, reading and her 22 year old cat, Sadie.