ARTIST STATEMENT
Penny Billings works in a unique style of contemporary realism. Her award-winning luminous oil paintings capture the constantly shifting light and mood of today’s varied American landscape.
Her oil paintings have been recognized nationally and internationally in juried art competitions and commercial art gallery installations, where they have exhibited in one-artist and group shows, including exhibitions at The National Arts Club and The Salmagundi Club in New York City, and at the Boston International Fine Art Show, The Copley Society of Art and the Massachusetts State House in Boston.
Inspired by the American tonalist master painters who idealized the 19th century countryside, Billings’s atmospheric oil paintings celebrate the grace and serenity of the contemporary American landscape. They grace fine art collections in both traditional and contemporary spaces throughout the United States and internationally.
Light & the Tonalist Landscape
“The first spark of dawn, afternoon’s last light reflected in water, or a lifting storm can stir memory or emotion. My landscapes, derived from a muted color palette, are intended to create a mood rather than depict a scene with absolute precision. They originate from a small sketch painted on site or from my own memory or imagination, developed in the studio into the larger final work on linen with many glazed layers of oil paint and the same oil medium used by master artists historically. The lengthy archival process, which can take weeks, gives the finished painting a translucent glow reflecting nature’s own. By focusing my subjects on the striking transitional times of day and night, like early morning and evening, I strive to capture the atmospheric and often elusive intersection between light and shadow.”
Penny Billings
