[The Dallas Morning News]
FDluxe.com
August 2008

Live at Five: Fox 4 Anchor Baron James Delivers the News-And a Daily Dose of Panache

Biggest Splurge: “The Journey,” a 19 foot watercolor on Mylar by Dallas artist Shane Pennington that hangs in his living room.

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JULY 2008 [page 22]
CALENDAR VISUAL ARTS

HCG Gallery

Discover the art of two Texans: Shane Pennington, who creates modern painting and installations and Michael Ledoux, whose mixed media abstract impressionist works will leave you breathless. Through July 27. 1130 Dragon St., Ste 190, 214 760 9230 or www.hcggallery.com.

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JULY 2008 NEWSLETTER
www.thecontemporary.net
eNEWS

“The American Dream” installation created by artist Shane Pennington, a satire on today’s culture in America, will be on exhibit June 27 – July 26. Opening Reception is July 11, 6-9 pm. A limited edition of 12 pieces will be available. All proceeds from the purchase of “The American Dream” will be donated to the Dallas Contemporary Moving Forward! Capital Campaign to renovate its new home at 161 Glass Street.

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QUICKDFW.COM
Friday, July 11, 2008 [page 3]
www.quickdfw.com

Best Bets for the Weekend

Contemporary art lovers can admire local artist Shane Pennington’s work at the opening reception tonight for his exhibition at HCG Gallery. Known for working with many types of media, Pennington also creates cutting edge sculptures and expressionistic acrylic paintings.

HCG Gallery 6 to 9 p.m. Free. 1190 Dragon St, Suite 190. 214 760 9230. Hcggallery.com

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MARCH 2007 [page 54]
THE RADAR DALLAS NOW
www.modernluxury.com

Two years in the making, four massive canvas paintings of Dallas artist Shane Pennington’s 3-D animated dandelions dispersing in the wind are now downtown in the JPMorgan Chase Tower’s lobby. The effect is a realistic look of the weedy flowers breaking away and blowing throughout the lobby. The permanent installation is dubbed “Live Art” and the exceptional piece was specifically designed for the downtown building and the attention of arts patrons across the nation. Check it out! 2200 Ross Ave. – T.E

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MARCH 2007 [page 57]
www.diversityinc.com

Artwork Eat at Joe's used in advertising for Cox Enterprises.

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Premier Issue
JANUARY 2007 [page 123, page 130]
www.luxetexas.com

Interior designer Kitowski describes the house as “strong, so it needed plenty of empty space to balance it. “She adds, “ The owers wanted excitement and playfulness. They wanted neutral backgrounds for tranquility, with color for art. “Shane Pennington did many of the paintings in the home.”

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WINTER 2007 [photo page 89]
www.beewomanmag.com

Eat at Joe’s. Shane Pennington. From the “Metro” series. Private Collection

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SUMMER SPLASH
JUNE 2005 [page 20, 46, 48 & 160]
CONTRIBUTORS

Blurb:
Contributing Photographer Bode Helm juxtaposes high style with fine art to create a masterpiece of his own (Look Who’s Talking,” page 160). He shares his thoughts on shooting cheerleader-turned-actress Jill Marie Jones: “Jill is great and was a natural of the camera. I wanted to shoot her in high couture to reflect her ever-changing style. I was also inspired by Shane Pennington’s art, which we used for the background.” Helm has traveled the world for such publications as Elle and TV Guide.

THE BUZ: ART

STARTING WITH A BANG
Shane Pennington lets himself go in brilliant,
futuristically inspired canvases that are eye-
grabbingly larger than life
[pages] 46 & 48

Shane Pennington’s studio us located in the Cedars, one of Dallas’ oldest neighborhoods. Founded in the late 1870s as an enclave of Victorian mansions, eventually commerce took a toll, by the 1920s, virtually all residences were gone, replaced by blocks of industry that would gradually crumble to special anonymity. Given this history, it’s strikingly incongruous to encounter the artist’s technology-fueled paintings in his South Ervay digs. The bravura of Should Have Sent a Poet, a 96-by-96 work from his nebula series, explodes before the eyes, a Big Bang of color and energy harnessed on canvas. In contrast, Faith is a study in reverential shades of purple and indigo, the titular word beaconing like a once-iterated mantra. Rorschach, one of Pennington’s Ink Blots (Waterworks) pieces, is a fragile abstraction of translucent life captured on drafting film. The Cedars never had it so good.

Pennington’s ebullience looms as large as the paintings themselves. He refers to them as “emotional billboards of life,” saying, “I like to work in large scale because I like to make a statement. If I could do a painting as big as a building I would.” While he admires the works of Mark Rothko, Frank Gehry, Dan Flavin, Alexander Calder and Robert Smithson, his fascinations are uniquely his: technology, computers, astronomy, cityscapes and the future.

A native Texan, Pennington’s interests in art is traceable to the influence of his grandmother, Virgie Cornelius, a landscape artists who lived with the family from the time he was in second grade. “Unlike normal kids who’d go out and play with the other kids after school, I’d come home and paint,” he recalls. “My grandmother got me started, put the first brush in my hand…she was such a character – cursed like a sailor, but has a heart of gold. We just raised hell together, basically.” She schooled Pennington in the use of oils, watercolors and pastels, mixing paint and cleaning brushes, and exposed him to various styles of painting; she recognized his talent immediately. Echoing her interests in landscapes, Pennington completed his first canvas, a bluebonnet scene, at the age of eight. When he told his grandmother he wanted to sell it, she decked out the painting in a gold-leaf frame. “I went up and down the street and knocked on doors,” he remembers. “I’d say, I’m selling artwork, would you like to buy this painting?” At the third house, an elderly couple bought the piece from me. I sold it for 10 bucks – my family laughed because they figured the couple probably just wanted the frame!” The death of his grandmother, “the most influential person in my life,” put the brakes on his nascent career. Shifting gears, Pennington pursued computer science at Texas Tech. “I got into it, I couldn’t get enough of the coding,” he maintains. “When you’re a programmer, it’s actually an art form in itself. It’s beautiful to look at… it was my way of being an artist at the time.” After graduation, Pennington moved to Dallas an became a programmer, but art was never far from his mind.

Before long, he began drawing with charcoal at the encouragement of an artist friend, Michael Marlowe Smith; he soon had the bug. “One evening I was just a little out of my mind, and I got out the charcoal and just went crazy with it,” Pennington says. “It was, ‘wow, OK, here we go,’ and I got hooked on it, back into art again.” The artist in him began to gain ascendancy, and his friend began subbing projects to him. By 1990, he started a mural company.

Realizing that his programming job was impeding his artistic progress, Pennington took a detour into real estate, hoping that a flexible work schedule would free him up for more brush time. It was a step in the right direction, and for the last five years, Pennington has been supporting himself solely on his art; it’s now his day gig, night gig, and weekend gig. He loves what he does, and he’s doing it just about every waking minute. The artist now works almost exclusively in acrylics; the paint’s quick-drying characteristics make it ideal for his subject matters and approach. Referencing one of his nebula paintings, the artist points out that he mixes a lot of water with his pigment, adding, “You can see it’s very liquidy, translucent, layer upon layer. There are probably 1,000 layers of paint on that one. I lay things flat and just puddle paint, then let it dry. I spend a lot of time watching paint dry,” he laughs. To complete the work, he applies numerous coats of varnish, yielding a high-gloss finish that enhances the brilliance of his palette and the depth of the painting surface. The end result is seductive; even a casual viewer becomes a convert, lost in Pennington’s enigmatic creations.

The Broken Word series is something of a departure from the artist’s futuristic leanings. Pennington loves the immediacy of the pieces, in works such as This is the Life and Jump Ship. Starkly drawn, often on strident backgrounds of complex color, Pennington intends to provoke a shocked reaction, a jolt to the senses. One of his regular collectors, whose support has played a crucial role in his success, assesses the paintings as among his very best, captivating with the naked emotions expressed. “My work is evolving, getting a little more edgy,” Pennington says. “I’m letting myself go, feeling more comfortable in the shoes…”

With paintings installed all over the city, one of Pennington’s high-profile placements is Blue Rain, an 84-by-60 abstract that graces Dallas Mayor Laura Miller’s conference room at City Hall. “She loves it,” he beams. “I’m always very pleased – that’s all I care about as an artist, is just making somebody happy, making them love the artwork.” Over the years, he has donated works to area charities; the gesture is consistent with his belief in the healing, spiritual nature of artistic expression. “I can’t imagine not painting,” Pennington says. “It’s why I’m here.” Or as he philosophizes on his website, “Art is like a roller coaster. We can all take the ride. Art gives us our highs and lows without moving our feet.”

LOOK WHO’S TALKING
[page] 160
Insecure and Secure Laurie Lee by Shane Pennington. 2005.
Background image in photo.

Contributing Photographer Bode Helm juxtaposes high style with fine art to create a masterpiece of his own (“Look Who’s Talking,” page 160). He shares his thoughts on shooting cheerleader-turned-actress Jill Marie Jones: “Jill is great and was a natural for the camera. I wanted to shoot her in high couture to reflect her ever-changing style. I was also inspired by Shane Pennington’s art, which we used for the background.” Helms has traveled the world for such publications as Elle and TV Guide.

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