Born in San Jose, California, Liz Penniman has lived and worked all over the world.
The turning point to become an artist began during a university program on Post-Renaissance Mannerism in Florence, Italy. After graduating with a degree in Environmental design, she went on to the Art Student’s League of New York to study portraiture and anatomy with the great drawing master Robert Beverly Hale. In San Francisco, Liz worked for the Museum of Modern Art and studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute with figurative painter Robert Colescott. She continued her arts education with extended travel. When living in Greece she gained a deep appreciation of the classical form. The art and culture of Southeast Asia impressed upon her the ephemeral nature of their handmade spiritual offerings. Living in Rio de Janeiro prompted the blending of abstraction and figuration.
Returning to New York, Liz furthered her studies with abstract expressionist Larry Poons, who coached her to let go of narrative completely. Along with exhibiting and selling her paintings in New York, she worked as a color technician in the studio of Jeff Koons. She then assimilated all of these teachings during her extended residence in Austin, Texas where she had exhibitions and speaking engagements across the state.
Liz then moved to the Reno/Tahoe area of Northern California to be near her elderly parents. During this time, the preparation for three solo exhibits furthered Liz’s exploration into the theme of the mountain as an array of shifting shapes. The resulting body of work, titled Extravagant Chemistry, is now complete. With family duties softening at this time, she begins to move and shift into new influences and new places.