Full
Moon Spotlight; The Art of
Pennie Griff (vintagepennie)
"I paint what I love,
and love what I paint, and
embrace a peaceful and
simple life." -
Artist Pennie Griff
Little girls with billowy
petticoats, round pumpkin
faces and other whimsical
characters gaze out at the
viewer from their assigned
place on a chair, a box or
whatever found object
artist Pennie Griff has
rescued and regenerated
into an astounding work of
functional art. Her
artwork, sold exclusively
on eBay is happily
lapped up by collectors
who recognize her
trademark-vintage style
reminiscent of gentler
days gone by. But Pennie's
journey to creating
decorative art was not
with out a few U-turns
along the way.
Born in Wyoming and
educated in Colorado, Ms.
Griff spent many years in
West Texas, New Mexico and
Southern Colorado, and
again recently to Texas to
look after family elders.
Her plans will be to
return with her husband to
either Colorado or New
Mexico soon to continue
her special brand of
decorative painting in a
bedroom that also serves
as her studio.
Pennie graduated from a
private high school where
she studied both music and
art, continuing her
studies in fine art in
college and proceeded to
quench her creative spirit
with further art classes
and experimentation after
graduation. Her continued
pursuit to learn new
mediums taught her to
combine ideas and think
outside of the proverbial
box.
This eclectic education
stirred up a passion for
the art, music, clothing
and furniture style of the
early 20th century. But as
she jokingly admits
herself, "Of course
when I first started
drawing at a very young
age, vintage was not so
vintage!"
Pennie lovingly treasures
the decorative flourishes
and fancies prevalent in
this Arts and Crafts era,
and loves creating sweet
pieces for what she terms
the "candy
holidays".
Throughout the decades
Pennie worked in a variety
of mediums and styles
including portraiture,
caricatures, newspaper
art, greeting cards,
appliqué art. floral
design, store window
design, and fabric
creations. By the 80's
Pennie created several
craft books for Country
Threads Designs where she
combined fabric painting
with machine appliqué.
She created a few wearable
art books for Hot Off the
Press and did shows that
included her gourd art.
Following a move to New
Mexico, she focused on
Southwest art, painting on
fabric and gourds, and
developing a way to sculpt
clay on to gourds. Later,
when she moved to
Colorado, she expanded her
repertoire to include
vintage-style holiday art
(particularly Halloween)
on figural gourd pieces,
and by the time she
discovered the Internet in
the late 90¹s, gourds
were her
"obsession".
After a couple of years on
eBay Pennie introduced her
line of decorative
paintings on found objects
and the collectors
responded
enthusiastically. The hunt
for that special abandoned
object -something that
would¹ve ended up in a
landfill or been parked
forever in someone¹s damp
basement sparks a secret
thrill for her. She¹s
been representing her art
on eBay for eight years
now and hasn¹t looked
back. She plans to
continue to paint
vintage-inspired artwork
on mostly vintage items
but may do a few pieces of
wearable art, and
hopefully a few gourds in
the future. But then, from
an artist with such a rich
art background- who knows
what will be springing
forth from her
bedroom-studio in the
future!
Pennie Griff's work can be
found on eBay under the
username vintagepennie.
