Penn is a Scottish born, Adelaide based artist and educator. She has lived in South Australia for over twenty years and been engaged in developing her artistic practice.
Penn works in pastels, collage and mixed media. Her exhibition, ‘I Didn’t Know I was Drowning till I Saw the Shore’ opened to critical acclaim at the Adelaide Fringe in 2021. The Shore exhibited again at SALA in 2021 and at the Campbelltown ArtHouse in 2022. Her work has also been shown at The Heysen Sculpture Biennial (HSB) in 2014 and 2016.
Over the past twelve months Penn has been planning and gathering materials for her installation, ‘How Do the Children Play’, which will premiere at SALA 2025. This work is in response to the displacement of children and their lives through war.
I Didn’t Know I was Drowning till I Saw the Shore Exhibition launched on 2 February 2021. Katrine Hildyard MP (then South Australian Shadow Minister for Women and Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence) opened the exhibition.
‘I feel so blessed to launch this exhibition – it is one of the most powerful I have ever seen.’ (Katrine Hildyard - Facebook 5.2.21)
The Shore is a collection of images in pastels, charcoal and pencil. The focus of the work is to capture the narrative and impact of childhood abuse which Penn experienced growing up and into early adulthood. The journey to recovery parallels the growth and diversity of her work as a visual artist.
‘Across 19 beautiful and confronting pieces of work, Penn takes the viewer on a breathtaking journey across the decades from abuse to survival to reconciliation.’
(Tabitha Lean – 24 Feb 2021 -mindshare.org.au)
Moonrise Harvest HSB 2014
(image by David Sievers)
Our Secret
(The Shore Collection)
Transitioning – Penn’s collage entry for Dark to Light @ Campbelltown ArtHouse, Adelaide Fringe 2022
Let’s Boogey!
Always There
(The Shore Collection)
Multi-media collage
Freedom – sketch done on tablet, while in Alaska