Education:
Cleveland Institute of Art
Fashion Institute of Technology
Parsons School of Design

Color, pattern, and movement within the composition are my passions in my paintings. When I set up a still life or object that calls me, I try to create a piece that "Makes your eyes work!"

I have always been a colorful person, even my clothes exude color and rhythm. Someone once said, "you look like fun!" I load my palette with brilliant colors that "sing" to me and I make a painting that sets a mood or brings in some fun and memories.

I discovered that watercolor is much too transparent and flat for me, so I went into gouache paints. The colors are brighter and denser and shoot out at the viewer. The medium helps to turn my work into the fanciful colorful designs I create. I can create transparencies or control the layers, glazing over some areas, making the colors deeper and richer.

I have several styles, one is my Cloth series, where a fabric is the inspiration. Another series is my Pottery series, where I paint pieces that I have created and add them to my work. These still lifes range from Southwest themes to traditional, well-drawn realistic works, to very modern, often whimsical artwork. Flowers and nature are other themes I delve into. I also enjoy Art Deco and have included antique pieces into some of my still lifes. After viewing Dale Chihuly's hand-blown glass, I became intrigued with art glass and often include dreamlike pieces into my more modernistic Glassworks series.

I was seven years old when my drawing abilities were discovered. I had copied the Old Masters works in pastels and created a diorama box in the form of an Art Museum. A college professor was so impressed that he took my work to show his class!

I like to give myself an assignment in order to keep doing new things. I will attempt to defy the rules (like centering, or using a color that should spring out at you and make it not do that).

Since high school, the artists that have influenced me include Picasso, Matisse and Braque. Their works, along with the Impressionists have been my greatest loves and influences. I recently saw the MC Escher and the Diego Rivera exhibitions and I can see some of their influences in my works.

Penni Rubin is a renaissance woman, a painter, photographer, interior designer,  and an educator. Her gouache & acrylics are vibrant and whimsical, ("Scene It" Show was shown throughout 2005). Penni also paints "plein air" in San Diego and in Cleveland. She has been  teaching art/music/science since 1970 & lectures Nationally about combining art & science for young children. She has written & illustrated eight books,  “What’s Under Your Feet?”  (for US Geological Survey), 2 CD's one on "Composition" &  "Crazy Daze" original songs for kids. She is a photography judge & does  birthday parties for the Natural History Museum.

Gallery Shows:

Butler Institute of Art, Youngstown, OH, December 2003, 2001-2002
Beachwood Library, Beachwood, OH, September-October 2003
"Worth Every Penni", Shaker Heights Community Building, Shaker Heights, OH, Aug-September 2003
"Good Gouache", Shaker Heights Library, Shaker Heights, OH, March 2003
Cleveland State University Art Show, 2002
Art Mart, Brecksville, OH, 2001-2002
First Unitarian Church Art Show, 2001
AGNON Art Show, Beachwood, OH, 2000
Workman's Circle, South Euclid, OH, April 2000
Hillcrest Guild Shows, Lyndhurst, OH, 1999-2003
Jewish Community Center Photography Show, Cleveland, OH, 1995-96

Collections:

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