Artwork copyright Carola Penn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Artwork copyright Carola Penn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Artwork copyright Carola Penn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Artwork copyright Carola Penn. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Tree, 1998

Carola Penn
American (born 1945)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia

About the Artwork

Tree is a three-panel painting by artist Carola Penn. It is part of her "Path" series of paintings. The often-ignored patterns, surfaces and objects that cross your path in the city inspired the series. This triptych shows three fragments of a tree: its branches, trunk, and shadows cast on the ground. Describing her process, Penn notes, "Photographs, memories, drawings, old paintings and gestures, colors and moods are all sources for the images. The paint is often applied in ways that reflect the subject: shadowy panels that refer to photographic or drawn images might be thinly glazed; a painting of the ground might be built up with multiple layers of paint mixed with sand or sawdust."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Bellingham School District.

About the Artist

Portland, Oregon-based artist Carola Penn creates landscape, abstract, and figurative paintings.
Penn received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon in 1986.