Snap! Crackle! Pop! 

This is what you can expect to see when looking at a Penny Gordon-Chumbley piece.

I want the viewer to hear the colors: the rush of golden brush strokes, the crackle of cerise, the exploding shades of green. I aim to evoke excitement, joy, wonder, awe and enthusiasm.

Through the imaginative use of color, I reinterpret what I closely observe in nature and in the domestic world around me. I see the world through the lens of an artist. I elevate the ordinary: salt and pepper shakers, leaves, vegetables, windfall apples, walks in the woods, vines on a rock wall. I create to put my personal stamp on this extraordinary experience we call “life.” I deeply believe that all life and all lives are extraordinary, worthy of respect and sacred. 

Creativity is a must, a have-to. I studied drawing and print-making in college, married, worked a variety of human service jobs, adopted a daughter. When our daughter graduated from high school, I heard an inner voice say, “You need to learn to paint.” And I listened. I studied painting through a local university for five years and then began my studio practice.

I paint whatever interests me. I create cut-paper pieces, a process born of frugality and of an aversion for waste. I hate to see paint dry out, wasted. I began using the leftovers from painted works, applied them to archival paper, experimented with texture on the wet surface and cut up the paper once dried. I played with these sheets of brightly colored paper, cutting them into floral and botanical shapes, creating a technique I call  “fleurage,” the marriage of the French word, “fleur” (flower) and collage.  

Straightforward and uncomplicated but evocative and exciting, I work to create joy.

“ I see trees of green, red roses too, 

I see them bloom for me and you 

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white

The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.”

— Excerpt from “What a Wonderful World” by George Weiss/Robert Thiele/George Douglas