Penny Peckham is a printmaker, based in Castlemaine since 2014. With a background in Art History, much of her work has been influenced by her research areas of feminist and women’s art more broadly. Since completing a Diploma of Art in the late 1990s Penny has continued to develop her skills as a printmaker, attending workshops with teachers including Basil Hall, Sarah Amos, Glen Skein and Diane Fogwell. She has been a member of the Goldfields Printmakers group since 2015, actively participating in exhibitions with them, and regularly engages with the printmaking community through print exchanges, in Australia and internationally.
She was recently part of a very successful exhibition called The Shape pf Blue, reflecting her predilection for the colour blue in her work.
Artist statement
I have long been torn between art and literature, between making, drawing, and reading; making art and writing about it. Currently I work primarily as a printmaker, working mostly with linocuts and low-tech printing with a gel-plate. With a background in Art History, much of my work has related to my areas of research, particularly art by or relating to women, including traditional female handcrafts. I have made prints based upon the knitted patterns of garments I made, and an artist book including linocuts of knitted swatches paired with details taken from art historical sources, of women’s hands knitting, tatting, or sewing. My reading of feminist art history and theory has also been the catalyst for a series of works relating to the female nude in art. Text – often fragmentary lyrics – has been an important element of much of my work – a reflection of my interest in music and literature, which also finds an outlet in the making of artists books, from simple folded works to more complex and sophisticated forms.
My preferred medium is the linocut. I really enjoy its graphic quality, but rather than produce a large edition of a single image, I often prefer to play with printmaking processes, producing several series of unique works by printing a small number of related plates in different combinations, colours or on different papers. Recently I have also sometimes printed a small edition of a particular image, worked more upon the plate, printed again and so on, producing various states of a plate. In recent years when we were often bound close to home, domestic subjects – plants, cats, teapots and other vessels were often the subject of my prints. Other motifs and elements that recur in include trees, patterning, layering, stitching, and piercing.
