Practitioner Focus: Penny Prileszky

Where do you get inspiration from?

I am drawn to pattern; my eyes seek it out, and I see it everywhere.

It helps me to create a sense of order, and impose a system upon the chaos of life.

It can evoke a sense of nostalgia, in the same way that a song, sound or smell can take me back to moments or places previously experienced.

With this in mind, I am a keen charity shop moocher, and love the adventure of a flea market; a treasure hunt for the as yet unknown. Found or repurposed surfaces, retro motifs and 70s inspired colour combinations feature regularly in my work, often with a neon nod to the 80s thrown in for good measure.

What is the first thing you remember making?

 

I have vivid memories of my classmates at Primary school encouraging me to copy Disney pictures for them, from a set of encyclopaedias we had in the classroom. My teacher, on the other hand, was not quite so keen, as I used up all of the sugar paper!

 
What’s your favourite tool to make art?

My degree was in painting, but since rediscovering my creative practice, I am much more playful in my approach, combining materials and processes to suit whatever I am trying to achieve. Since colour plays such an important part in my work, I like to use Inktense pencils and Anilinky watercolours, as they are beautifully strong in pigment, but my best find recently has been a neon yellow spray paint from my local pound shop!

 
What are you working on at the moment?

As well as my sketchbook adventures, I am currently creating a body of work for an exhibition which should have been in November. Lockdown II has given me a bit more time to get things finished, for which I am grateful!

 
Where can we see more of your work?

I am a member of Y Ty Celf,, a collective of artists and makers based in West Wales.

My work can be seen on their website: https://www.ytycelf-thearthouse.com