Biography

Penelope Bobbin (1959) was born in Pambula, a small country town in the far south coast of New South Wales. The first few years of her life she lived in a log cabin built by her sleeper, cutting father with her mother and elder brother. With no running water, electricity or sanitation, it was akin to free camping and required her parents to be resourceful and respectful in order to co exist with nature and it’s elements. The bounties of the ocean provided her family with food, recreation and salutation. A love of country, nature, the ocean and the great outdoors has always been an important part of her life. The introduction of concrete railway sleepers and the aim at saving our forests forced a move to the big smoke.

Mostly her childhood was spent in the western suburbs of Sydney where she was raised and attended school. After receiving a government scholarship she studied to become a teacher at Goulburn CAE majoring in Art and the Social Sciences.

Drawing, painting, designing, ceramics and craft were subjects she delighted in and excelled at. In 2003, years after teaching, falling in love, travelling, marrying and giving birth to four children, a restlessness and desire led her to Meadowbank Tafe. Here she studied Fine Arts three days a week for seven years attaining an Advanced Diploma with two majors in painting and print making.

Thriving and loving every minute of her art education she progressed on to graduate from the National Art School in 2012. Penny’s art practice draws upon memories and nostalgia, exploring figurative elements in a space. The space may be private, theatrical, a narrative or an abstract space depending on the mood or story unfolding.

"The concepts of belonging, identity and personality have always been of interest to me. A human being can be traced by a series of fragmented images, moments in time or a physical place."

As an artist I like to explore those visual flashbacks, frozen memories that become imprinted in our mind and that help to define who we are and where we belong.