An Early Beginning
A parent has a front-row seat to the glimmers of potential in their child. No one can believe in you quite like your parents. Yet so many do not have this life experience. I am blessed beyond measure that my parents believed in me even as a young child. Although money was tight and we learned to "make do" in many ways, there was never a shortage of art materials nor encouragement to create freely. What an incredible blessing from God. Now, it's my turn to pay it forward and encourage upcoming art students. I wish that my parents could witness what their belief and encouragement have accomplished.
Training and Education
Influence and Artistic Opportunities
Between my creative parents and a school system that offered quality art and music programs, I had a good opportunity to explore the visual arts. In Junior College, I focused on ceramics and sculpture. As a young adult, I co-owned a busy stained glass studio in Orange County, California. Wanting a change from city life, I moved to Humboldt County, in northern California. I decided to follow in my mother's footsteps and began painting feverishly.
A local art show piqued my attention and the featured artist was enormously talented. I recognized a quality about his work that I did not have but certainly wanted. I inquired if he would teach me and for three and a half years I sat under his tutelage. I soon discovered that the quality I saw was a heightened understanding of color. Jim Faber taught a group of students his dynamic color theory having obtained it from an impressive teaching line.
Jim Faber's teacher was Bernie Zulusky, a product of the Art Institute of Chicago. Zulusky's teacher was Louis Ritman, an art professor at that Institution. Ritman painted along with a well-known painter named Fredrick Frizeke. Both artists painted in Claude Monet's gardens during Monet's lifetime.
Theological Degree
I made a decision to finish my education. My artistic style is traditional realism, which was being treated as irrelevant in a lot of college art programs at the time. I became interested in exploring the spiritual side of life and earned a Biblical Counseling degree. While my art studio work took a back seat, I kept engaged in the arts in a variety of ways with ministry in a Christian church.
Nehemiah's Art Studio & Gallery
A change point in life came when I had the opportunity to purchase a studio and residence and open the studio up for art classes. It was a period of rebuilding in my life. In the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, I read about a group of people who had to rebuild their lives and at the same time rebuild the wall that surrounded their city. Their story resonated with me and so I named the studio "Nehemiah's Art." More information about these classes can be seen on the website: Penfrea.com
After a decade, I was able to redesign the studio and gallery. It is a joy to share the space with up-and-coming local artists and help them reach their artistic dreams. See the video on this site to see how it came together. The gallery space is consistent with my artistic style of traditional realism.
2010 - present
2010 - present
Artistic Community
Appreciating the value of an artistic community, I joined an internet artist group out of New Zealand whose teacher is named Andrew Tischler. His "Tisch Academy" has encouraged my further artistic growth. As "iron sharpens iron" my involvement with this group helps all of us to become better artists.
Future Dreams
The desire to grow in artistic expression is endless. For the rest of my days, I hope to create paintings that enhance, encourage, and inspire the viewer to drink in the beauty of our natural world while pointing to the Great Creator who made it all.
