About Penelope Milner, Artist painter
Penelope Milner has worked as a committed artist since obtaining her BA in 1982.
She is a member of the French pastel society and exhibits with them annually. She also frequently exhibits with The British Pastel Society.
Before moving to France she showed at the Royal Academy and With The Royal Society of Oil painters where she won the Windsor and Newton Young Artist award in 1987
For the last 27 years she has lived a rural life in the Lot region of France, where she finds inspiration in the landscape, the village markets, her family and friends. The principal exception to this is a series of street scenes painted mainly in Paris and in Toulouse.
‘It seems to me that I have more chance of producing something honest and original if I work from the immediate inspiration of I what I know. Hopefully, within that, I will perceive and express a new angle or a deeper perception of things.
My best paintings are produced with immediacy when the image is fresh, then there is a genuine sense of excitement and energy which I hope is conveyed.’
Penelope has worked on Commissioned portraits in London and in America.
In 2004 she was awarded the Debra Mannifold prize by the British Pastel society and in 2009 given the status of ‘Maitre Pastelliste’ by the French pastel society of which she is an active member.
She has paintings in private and public collections in the UK, europe, the USA, Canada and South Aftrica.
Penelope exhibits regularly in the Galerie l’écharpe in Toulouse.
She teaches courses from her studio in Catus, France and also in Paris and Limoges for the French Pastel Society.