Rod Penner
American, born Canada, born 1965Day, 2010
Not on view
Acrylic on panel
Dimensions6 × 6 in.
Museum purchase, 2010.282
In his small-scaled paintings, Rod Penner captures the landscapes of small-towns with incredible detail. He specifically seeks out closed, empty, or abandoned buildings, and takes photographs that serve as starting points for his paintings. Rather than rigidly copying the photograph before him, he edits the image to create a specific mood—often to heighten a sense of melancholy and isolation within an urban landscape. Using a tiny paintbrush, he renders each paint-chipped facade, pavement crack, and aged sign in precise detail. In carefully selecting what to paint and what to leave out, he attempts to summon a memory of something intangible that the viewer will recognize.
