Penny Clayton grew up in Ontario Canada and moved to Ulster County NY in 1980 where she lives currently. All her life she has enjoyed a connection to the natural world; weeks-long camping trips with her siblings, cottaging with her friends, learning how to sail on Lake Ontario with her father, and then as an adult living in Woodstock NY, outfitting and guiding wilderness expeditions in Northern Ontario and Western Quebec.
She began the journey into painting while living in Marin County, CA in the mid-2010’s creating pieces that were primarily autobiographical. Having no formal training she relied entirely on intuition as she attempted to discover what any specific piece was trying to tell her - working to discover not only what it was about, but how to articulate the images.
It was only when she returned from California that she began formal training. She currently lives in West Saugerties, NY and is excited to share her work in shows and galleries.
If you are lucky you have known that moment, that achingly beautiful moment that reminds you where you came from, that illuminates the paradox of both being separate and divinely belonging, that glows with a recognition of such beauty and deep knowing that you are brought to your knees.
In an ordinary moment
when the air may be crisp or moist,
there is light or wind on water;
there may be a tree, a rock, a lake or cloud,
a sunset or a storm-cleared sky,
a bug on a petal.
Or you may simply be looking into the eye of a wild being.
And you are struck by a familiarity, a knowing just beyond reach.
There, in that flash, everything exists and it eviscerates you.
It sounds dramatic, maybe even violent, but this profound, divine reckoning is joyous and completely the opposite. Once observed it is peace, a belonging so supreme and everlasting its ridiculously simple, laughable even. This is oneness. Here you find yourself but, ha! you are no longer. And as soon as you recognize it you are filled with yearning but all that you wish to apprehend is here, in this light, this sunset, this cloud, in the depth of an eye.
I choose to paint the natural and wild world and my experience of this constant reconciliation that I am both in and of it, this unfathomingly magnificent living orchestra of Life.
-Penny
