Rob Penno will open Maiden Gully’s first art gallery next week.
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The Maiden Gully artist has more than 1000 paintings from his 30-year career that art lovers will be able file through.
The gallery is in a building that Penno constructed 35 years ago.
The building acted as a workshop but has since been renovated into a gallery for his numerous acrylic and watercolour paintings as well as his drawings.
“I built it myself with some granite I got from the old pool at the Eaglehawk soccer ground,” Penno said.
“I only just turned it into a gallery two years ago when I installed new racks to display the work.
“There’s about 1000 paintings in here and it’s taken 30 years of painting and drawing.
“The paintings just used to be stacked against the wall and were very inaccessible. I want people to stop and go through what’s there.”
Penno said he had always enjoyed drawing but worked as an engineer adn teacher before becoming an artist.
“I was always a drawer but the family tradition was civil engineering, which I did,” he said.
“I earned four degrees, including two in education, and taught at weeroona college for about 12 years until my health gave out and I turned to painting.
“That was when I was about 35 or 40 and I haven’t looked back. Some paintings take me three months, some take five years.”
Penno’s private gallery is the first one to poop up in the Maiden Gully area.
“The last two or three years I have mainly been painting outdoors. The driveway is covered in paint because I’m too messy to paint indoors,” he said.
“There are a few artists out towards Marong but I don’t know if they have galleries. There used to be Borough Galleries in Eaglehawk, which was run by Willie and Kevin Carney.
“People go to Broken Hill to see all the galleries around there, I don’t know if one by itself (in the country) works, maybe I’ll start a trend.”
As well as landscapes and drawings, Penno said he has also taken a fancy to what he calls “triangularisms”.
“I don't like using oil because it takes so long to dry – a week or more before I can frame it,” he said.
“There’s lots of acrylic and watercolour as well as ‘triangularisms’.
“That’s my new type of art. If you’ve heard of cubism, which is obviously based on cubes, then trianglarism is based on triangles.
“I tend to work for a little while on one type of painting then go to another, then another. It is a good way to test myself, which I enjoy.”
Penno said the gallery will be open when the sign is out the front. It is located at 81 Patas Road, Maiden Gully.
Alternatively, people can phone 5449 6625 to book an appointment.