Penny Skerrett

Still - Life in Quay House 2021

1st October - 14th November 2021

“This series of drawings came out of living in Quay House during lockdown. I have drawn where my gaze landed, corners of rooms, piles of books, a jumper thrown over a chair. The stuff of everyday life.

The house has been both a place of comfort and retreat as well as a place of solitude and loneliness. Looking and observing connects me with life and these drawings helped me to find ease during these months.”

‘Let it be still and it will gradually become clear’, Lao Tzu 

Penny Skerrett undertook her BA in Fine Art at Cardiff and completed an MA in Art & Ecology at Dartington Arts School. 

Skerrett likes to explore under the surface of things – be it places, situations or encounters with people – looking for connections, underlying patterns and systems, so that they may be revealed. Through this process stories start to emerge and the potential for change begins.

Artists statement:

My practice emerges from integrating creativity into everyday living. The Norwegian philosopher Arne Ness used the term ‘beautiful actions.’ I believe close attention falls into this category. By paying attention to something we accept its imprint and it becomes part of us and in turn we give of ourselves. My work aims to reinforce this mutual and poetic interdependence.

“I draw, I write, I have conversations, I walk, I sew, I make things. I lift stones to see what lies underneath.”

 A piece of Penny’s writing ‘Looking at Pictures’ accompanies the exhibition.