Born in San Jose California, Liz Penniman has lived and worked all over the world. The turning point in her education was during a university program in Italy on Post-Renaissance Mannerism which inspired her to begin painting. 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. Then based in San Francisco, Liz worked for the Museum of Modern Art and studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute with figurative artist 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. Rio de Janeiro prompted a brighter palette as an expression of its wild street life. Returning to New York, Liz furthered her studies with abstract expressionist Larry Poons who coached her to let go of imagery completely. Along with exhibiting and selling her paintings, she worked as a color technician in the studio of Jeff Koons. Liz moved to Northern Nevada in 2016. Her solo exhibits at McKinley Arts and at Western Nevada College have helped her to develop the theme of the mountain as an array of shifting shapes. Her current body of work, titled Extravagant Chemistry, is her response to living up against the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. Following a lifelong path with figurative painting that was informed by a visceral absorption of each locale, Liz is brought here to the foot of this mountain range. In her painting practice she develops an array of moving elements, ever active, ever forming, and all the while standing completely still.