A man of many faces

TURNING POINT: Harrow artist Ron Penrose with a painting of western Victorian philanthropist Geoff Handbury. Mr Penrose said the portrait’s broad-palette-knife style sparked a turning point in his artistic development. Picture: GREG O’CONNOR

By GREG O’CONNOR
Harrow sheep farmer Ron Penrose is igniting a new passion in his life.
The budding artist is five years into a visual arts degree with University of Ballarat’s Horsham campus and is set to unveil his best work at an exhibition in the Wimmera capital next week.
Mr Penrose has turned a 40-year hobby into a potential full-time pursuit with a recent switch to portrait work that is winning fans across western Victoria.
“I started the degree because I was interested in printmaking and liked drawing, linoprints and etchings,” Mr Penrose told The Weekly Advertiser.
“The course included one year of painting and with a choice of subjects on offer, I decided to try portraiture.”
Mr Penrose said he spent two years developing a portrait style that depicted his subjects as accurately as possible.
“They were well-received paintings but after a while I realised my pursuit of accuracy meant I was simply competing with a camera and I didn’t want that,” he said.
It was a viewing of 2011 Archibald Prize winner Ben Quilty’s work that brought the biggest change in the artistic career of Mr Penrose.
“Ben won the Archibald using a broad palette knife to paint artist Margaret Olley. It was an intriguing technique and I had to try it,” he said.
“I was looking for a subject for the portrait and I decided to try philanthopist Geoff Handbury, who was someone I’d painted before and is a fascinating man.

• Get the full story in the January 19, 2012 edition of The Weekly Advertiser.

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Posted by Weekly Advertiser on Jan 25 2012. Filed under Arts Entertainment, Community, FEATURED. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry