ABOUT PENNY
Tomorrow's History Today
Penny Warden began to paint at a very early age and indeed was highly commended for her work by the Royal Drawing Society - The Children's Royal Academy, London, when only 12 years old. Despite the protests of her art teachers she did not continue in her art studies after leaving school but pursued various careers in the city of London and finally in teaching after graduating in 1984 with a degree in Theology from Westminster College, Oxford. However, Penny continued to paint, even when heading a Religious Studies Department and raising two children. Finally after beginning a degree in Fine Art in the late 1990's she became a full time artist in 2001.
The sense of movement and vibrancy which is Penny's trademark is especially evident in her oil paintings of ballet dancers. She also paints and draws with the same lively expression still life, musical instruments and flowers. All these paintings are available in galleries throughout the UK.
As well as her gallery work, Penny is now well known for her spiritual paintings. In addition to "the major project of national significance at Blackburn Cathedral", she has painted The Phoenix Series -figurative works based on the crucifixion. She was supported in this with a grant from the Christian Arts Trust www.christianartstrust.org.uk - patron the Archbishop of Canterbury. Since 2000 they have been seen by many thousands of people whilst on a solo tour of 10 English cathedrals, 3 churches and college chapels, including Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. They are 6ft oil paintings and are normally displayed down the nave for up to two months for each exhibition. She was commissioned for two of these paintings by St John’s Church, Waterloo in London.
In 2004 as a ‘rising artist’, Penny was chosen to exhibit her religious work in St Paul’s Cathedral alongside Tracy Emin, Maggie Hambling, Peter Howson, Sir Norman Adam and other prominent British artists, in an innovative and exciting national exhibition called “Presence: Images of Christianity for the Third Millennium.”
Condoleezza Rice lighting a candle in front of one of Penny's paintings in Blackburn Cathedral 2006
Penny has been interviewed on BBC radio and filmed for a worldwide satellite television broadcast; she has featured in a number of national magazines and publications; she has had her work used by Cambridge University in a major theological project, The Beta Course; www.beta-course.org/art.htm she has exhibited and spoken about her work at Oxford University; she has been artist in residence at Gordonstoun School in Scotland and Wycombe Abbey, Buckinghamshire; she has been the guest speaker at the Wokingham District Arts Festival, involving thirty local schools; her paintings have been used by a theatre company for various productions; www.wildcardtheatre.org.uk/indexgreenroom.html and she has been part of several consultation groups at Windsor Castle on ‘Human Creativity in the Arts’.