Cristina Penescu Wildlife in Acrylic and Scratchboard

Cristina Penescu was born in Bucharest, Romania, 1988. Her family relocated to California when Cristina was a year old. Since early childhood, her passion for art and nature was very apparent. As a child she loved to collect books about animals and spend her time outside in nature.

She enjoys painting a wide variety of wildlife subjects, however wild canids, especially wolves, hold a special place in her heart and have been a recurring theme in her art since childhood.

• ARTIST STATEMENT

My love for art and nature began during early childhood. Throughout my youth I possessed a strong fascination with the scientific and natural world coupled with a passion for the arts. In August of 2009, at the age of 20, I began to focus on promoting my wildlife art and developing a presence in the art community. I work in a highly realistic style because I believe that nature's beauty lies in it's tiny details that are often overlooked, such as the moist, leathery texture of a nose or the bent, loose hairs in an animal's seemingly immaculate pelt.


I work primarily in acrylics and scratchboard, alternating between the two as needed to realize my visions. Scratchboard is a little known medium made up of a 1/8" masonite panel that is covered with smooth white clay and coated with a fine layer of india ink. I use a sharp knife to scratch every single detail and hair by hand. A single scratchboard piece can be made up of tens of thousands of tiny scratches layered atop one another. Additionally, I airbrush thin coats of india ink back onto my boards before beginning the scratching phase all over again for a second time. This allows me to achieve additional tones that are not otherwise possible.
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