THIS week we chat with painter Greg Penno, who says after starting to paint in his late 60s, one of his first works was awarded Best Oil or Acrylic in Show at the Moonee Valley Art Show.<\/p>\n
What motivated you to become a painter?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve always been interested in the art world from an early age and as a child at primary and secondary school I was encouraged to draw and engage in art.<\/p>\n At Technical School I had an art teacher, Norman Penrose, who was a well-recognised local artist engaged mainly in watercolours.<\/p>\n Life, family, work and community service took up most of my life and I had not physically taken up painting until my wife produced a birthday present for my 50th birthday – a year-long, weekly session with Terry Jarvis, a local wonderful prolific and well-known watercolour artist.<\/p>\n I enjoyed those sessions with Terry but work and family life interfered with what I could produce.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until I was in my late 60s that I started to paint knowing that retirement wasn\u2019t all that far away, and I would need to keep my mind active.<\/p>\n One of my first paintings was entered in the Moonee Valley Art Show in 2017 where it was awarded Best Oil or Acrylic in Show, with the judge David Chen.<\/p>\n This win propelled me to continue painting.<\/p>\n How would you describe your style?<\/strong><\/p>\n My style is based on Impressionism and Contemporary Art.<\/p>\n I like the works of Claude Monet for its simplicity and use of colour and light, and I admire the tenacity of Jackson Pollock to stand up against traditional artists.<\/p>\n Pollock\u2019s Blue Poles<\/em>, purchased by the Victorian Government and owned by the National Gallery of Victoria, is now valued at $500 million.<\/p>\n I do a few landscapes, but I enjoy doing abstracts for the freedom that it gives you.<\/p>\n The only prizes I\u2019ve won and artworks that I\u2019ve sold have been abstract, so obviously I concentrate on that.<\/p>\n In doing abstracts and from a contemporary point of view, I paint with mainly acrylic paints and using acrylic pours, manipulating the paint with air pressure and using a variety of instruments from brushes, to bubble wrap, balloons filled with water, sponges and anything that can produce a different impression and style.<\/p>\n