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PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
said since Penny knew Johnson he might could get into the class, though
there was a long waiting list. Having no experience, Penny had no paintings to show Prine, but he did have a sketch of a man’s face he’d drawn
three decades earlier. Prine looked at the piece and said, “Be here on
Monday.” After two years, Penny says he’s “fallen in love” with painting.
“Everybody says I’ve got a gift,” he said, his tone suddenly self-effacing. “… The Lord has blessed me with a gift, and I don’t want to squander
that.”
His art he calls “photo realistic,” efforts to reproduce on canvas what
his camera and artist’s eye have captured. Though thematically his artwork
is clearly western, Penny says there’s not a “western bone” in his body. His
style reflects the influence of teacher Prine, a well-known western artist of
the area.
To Penny, art is an opportunity to decelerate and appreciate what we
busy-bee mortals so often overlook.
“I think we live in such a busy world that sometimes we don’t stop and
take a look at the beautiful surroundings, whether it be nature or structure,
or more importantly, friends. We’re busy people,” he said. “When a person
appreciates art, I think they slow down and allow their senses to engage,
so to speak, to appreciate a slower, more beautiful world. So to me art is
an expression of natural beauty.”
MARCH 2016
etirement is turning into something
of a second career for Dr. Robert
Penny. After 37 and a half years in
orthodontics here in Weatherford, the
good doctor now finds himself devoted
to oil and canvas, exhilarated by painting. Penny — not long “out of harness”
— retired Dec. 30, 2014, and first
picked up the brush and stood before an
easel two years ago. But the artist’s eye
had been developing long before.
Looking for a hobby, he picked up
a camera some seven years ago and
soon contracted the “shutterbug bug.”
Combining apertures, shutter speeds and
thoughtful framing for effect, he captured
images of outdoor wildlife and scenery
that attracted attention.
“People said, ‘Man, you have the
eye for this,’” said Penny. “I started
showing my photos and several people
said, ‘It’s a shame you don’t paint —
these are really artistic.’” The burgeoning artist received further inspiration
when he entered a photo in a contest in
Granbury.
“When I walked in, I saw what I
thought was a magnificent, large photo
of a bird dog holding a duck in his
mouth,” Penny recalled. “A lady said,
‘Are you here for the photo contest?’
and I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m embarrassed
because that one behind you will win.’
She said, ‘You’ve got to come look at
this a little closer.’ I said, ‘It’s a perfect
photograph — I don’t know how he got
the dog to sit still … my gosh, that’s so
good!’”
The woman insisted he take a closer
look at the phenomenal photo and to
his amazement he discovered it was not
a camera image but a painting. He was
floored. Inspired.
The lifelike painting bore the name
“Van Johnson,” a painter of hunting
dogs, pets, wildlife and western paintings
out of Granbury. Penny contacted him,
hoping to learn how such canvas magic
had been created.
“He’s a retired choir director and
teaches voice lessons, and so he told
me, ‘Bob I can’t let you be my student,
but you can contact my teacher. He
teaches at Hobby Lobby in Fort Worth.’
So one day I walked into Hobby Lobby
and there was the art class.”
Penny visited with artist/teacher Doug
Prine and told him the story of the ultrarealistic dog and duck painting that had
so moved him. It was a good story. Prine
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