Beauty is Nourishing...
..and because it is, I have made it my mission to bring the wild and rugged beauty of the Canadian Landscape, to nourish your heart and home through the eyes of an artist and with the medium of alcohol ink. I create paintings designed to lift your spirit and inspire you to live with wonder. What a wonderful world!
Black Spruce Gallery
Black Spruce Gallery of Lake Waskesiu, Saskatchewan, will be carrying my work again this year. I am so excited to be working with this beautiful little gallery located in the picturesque Prince Albert National Park and I am honoured to a part of their incredible collection of Canadian artists all painting in the Boreal Forest theme. Be sure to visit them at BlackSpruceGallery.ca to see more of my work.
Wearable Art by Penny Gabor
I have partnered with a most amazing Canadian company that makes ethical, wearable art and home decor using art by living artists.
"By choosing Le Galeriste, you support local production, living artists and the environment!"
I love that everybody wins in this partnership. You get to wear beautiful orginal art syles, a Canadian company employs Canadians and uses ethical choices to produce beautiful clothing and accessories, and I have the opportunity to take my art into the world of fashion!
Click Penny Gabor Art at Le Galeriste to shop now!
Spring/Summer Line for 2021 coming soon!
Resin Process Video
What is Alcohol Ink?
I'm so glad you asked!
Alcohol Inks are a lot like watercolours, but it is alcohol to alcohol inks that is like water to watercolours. The inks are a solution of dye dissolved in isopropyl alcohol and recognized by their intense, highly saturated, translucent colours.
They look brightest when painted on something non-porous. Most of the time, I use Yupo paper which is much like paper in it's appearance and weight, but is a non-porous synthetic paper.
The inks are very interesting to work with because they are always live. Even after a piece has dried (but before it is sealed, if a drop of alcohol or alcohol ink touches it, all the colours that are touched by that new ink react. Unlike traditional painting, alcohol inks don't layer or blend. They tend more to push each other out of the way - creating wonderfully organic lines. Sometimes the paper beneath stains, but the ink is still moved to one side creating those dark edges that are so interesting.
It means that things don't always turn out as planned and my job as the artist is to work with what is happening and turn it into something beautiful.
I love their unexpected and uncontrollable nature - it leaves lots of room for creativity and intuition.
I have found my medium.
Educational Video (thank you to the Art Gallery of Algoma who put this together for our local schools as part of their arts program, to encourage kids in the arts)
Seasons along the Way...
In my last year of high school, my art class went on a field trip to an art college. The trip was one I had been looking forward to for weeks as this was where I thought I would continue my education in pursuit of becoming an artist.
The day of the tour was not one I would soon forget. It was mildly traumatizing. Everything I saw there was the opposite of who I thought I was as an artist. Everything I saw that day was dark, bloody, scary and gory.
I left believing I could never be an artist.
I made other plans. I went to university, got married, had children and lived life, while the artist in me leaked out in all kinds of ways along the way.
to Discovery...
Finally, in 2014, my husband got a new office and commissioned me to paint him something to hang on the bare walls. Painting again was like a breath of fresh air in lungs long starved of oxygen.
It wasn’t until Christmas of 2016 that I discovered Alcohol Inks. They were vibrant, rich in colour, translucent, and such a challenge - painting with them requires an ability to relinquish control and enjoy the outcome. They come alive again when one colour touches another. I have enjoyed the challenge of this new medium and it is my hope that you appreciate the results. In finding alcohol inks, I have rediscovered a part of myself.
Pleased to Meet You...
I am currently carving out a career as an artist, but have dedicated much of my life to my family. While I've been creating one thing or another forever, it wasn't until my youngest started school that I got serious about art again. (I have a wonderful husband and 6 amazing kids - so it just took me a while to get here :)
My name - Penny - actually means Weaver or Creative Spirit, so I guess it's rather fitting that I have found myself in creating. Painting provides opportunity to continually push ideas and try new things and while this is both stimulating and exciting, I think I do it to reflect the light and goodness I see in the world. So far in this artistic journey for me, I want what I do to have an uplifting impact on the people who interact with it. Life has enough darkness and hardship - I want my work to feel life-giving and cheerful with a side of joy.
So there you have it - I hope that my work brings something bright to your life!
Penny Gabor Art
Sault Ste Marie
Canada
By Appointment or by chance!
pennygaborart@outlook.com