Alva Review-Courier -

Artist Virgil Penner likes to tell people he's so sweet because he had eight years of Candy, Candy School that is. Growing up on a farm east of Newton, Kansas, he attended a one room school named Candy. He has lived around the Newton area all of his life.

In the seventh and eighth grades, Penner had a "grandma teacher," a woman who volunteered to teach when they couldn't fill the position. Twice a week, their teacher would have them go outside for an hour and look at nature. Then the students would come back inside and write a poem or draw a picture based on what they saw. "That really kind of opened the door to my visual observation of the world around me," Penner said.

In high school, he enrolled in one hour of art. After the first week, he was called to the principal's office and told his teacher wanted him to take two hours of art. Every school day, he and another student named Max spent two hours in art class. Both played football with Penner as a right guard and Max as a right tackle so they had a lot in common.

"My art teacher in high school really pushed us to develop a style, to create something, to be more creative and not copy," he said. "Matter of fact, she would not let us bring pictures in to paint from." If they didn't have an idea, their teacher would send them to the railroad track, the depot or the roundhouse. Then they'd head back to class to draw and paint.

"I never had to do that because of my observation all of my life. I could just create pictures which I still do today," said Penner. "I do not paint from photographs, and I do not do commissions from photographs. That's too much pressure on me to produce what you (the client) want."

After college, Penner had a job coaching three sports a year. He started a family and gave up painting. Instead, he concentrated on doing ink drawings. "I was probably better known for my in drawings ... than my paintings were," he said.

A 2009 trip to New Mexico changed that. He and his wife took a two week vacation to visit Santa Fe, Taos and Tucson. They walked up and down the streets visiting galleries. "Before I left, I decided – I'm going to start painting again," he said. He went to the Art Mart and spent $500 on painting supplies and has been painting ever since.

"From 2009 to the present, I've painted a little over 700 pictures and have sold 589 pictures so far," Penner said. He says most of his paintings go to people under 50 years of age because they want "something to pop out, have bright colors."

He explained the style his high school teacher helped him develop years ago is "to make contrasting colors side by side – like red and white, yellow and black. In my mind these things happen. I don't know what I'm going to do when I start painting."

"My pictures are probably known for the movement in them. My art teacher said a tree has no leaves. It has shapes. When you shape the tree correctly, it gives you that feeling that the wind is blowing," he explained. "My buildings all have a character because they bend or bow."

Penner also likes to work with kids. "One of my best painting experiences is to go to a high school in Wichita and paint two times in the fall and two times in the spring in front of their special ed classes," he said. "Oh man, you talk about creativity. Those kids really take off, and I really enjoy doing that."

Penner also likes to donate his paintings to charity for auctions. During his visits to art shows in a five state area, he takes along some smaller paintings to give away to kids who spend some time really looking at art. "Seven years ago I gave a kid a painting in Lincoln, Nebraska. Last fall he came up and showed me a painting he's doing. He's now majoring in art at the University of Nebraska. His mother said ever since he got that painting, he was hooked."

In conclusion, Penner said, "For me art is not what you see, it's what makes you feel. Like music, you don't see anything in music, you feel. And art is a feeling experience."

Penner's paintings are on display throughout May at the Graceful Arts Gallery in Alva.