1) Still Life on a Checkered Tablecloth

Jacqueline Penney

Jacqueline Penney
My explanation of the painting

Jacqueline Penney

In June 1981, I am inspired by a Charles Reid watercolor, a still life on a checkered tablecloth that he did as a demonstration at a workshop I attended. I purchase that painting because I like it so much. I set up a still life on a checkered tablecloth, using the abundance of fall vegetables and fruits available from the local farm stands. The major prop is a spotlight shining on the table. It also represents my belief that we create our own reality. The brilliance of the light discloses a snapshot of that reality, and may be turned on or off.  I have always wanted to see the light and to be in it. Although Charles Reid’s painting and mine use a checkered tablecloth, the paintings are vastly different. This is the first of four large tabletop Series (48 x 60.)

2) Still Life After Death

Jacqueline Penney

Jacqueline Penney

The drips of paint along the sides of the canvas connect the past — Bill — to the present, which are represented by the objects on the tabletop. The present then connects to the future — the calm, distant waterscape devoid of any activity. My significant spotlight shines brightly on the table of life. Where this spotlight is placed in each of the four paintings in this series is extremely significant to me. The candle honors the life of my husband, but I have no recollection of putting it there for that reason. He used to call little children nothing more than “vegetables.” However, the fruit represents the fruit of my loins, my children — I find them beautiful. I never could figure out his reasoning. Sugar is the sweetness, lemon the bitterness. No knife is on top of the cutting board. The board had been given to us on one of our anniversaries because our friends, Dot and Bud, couldn’t believe we were still together. When the divorce comes through, I ask my friend Bud, who had originally inscribed it, to cross it out with an X going through it. I find the act of painting this still life cathartic. It cleanses my soul.

Jacqueline Penney
Later, I do two more 48 x 60-inch paintings with the same theme — tabletops with the light stand. Bill Penney died on October 22, 1982, eight days before his 73rd birthday. We had a memorial for him at my barn/studio.

Jacqueline Penney

Jacqueline Penney

3) Still the Life of the Party

Jacqueline Penney

Jacqueline Penney

I painted Still (the) Life of the Party in 1983. It comes as an aftereffect of Bill’s death, and what caused it. I insert (the) into the title because I do not want to insinuate that this is truly a party. The background is cold. The snow-covered mountain and the starless sky are austere. The light bulb is dead, and does not shine on the remains of the party. There is a false message to the viewer, the one who does not see that the colorful balloons are deflated, the streamers limp, and cigarette ashes spilled on the table. A glass is overturned, dripping its remains on the tablecloth that, to me, represents the altar of life. 

Jacqueline Penney

Jacqueline Penney

4) Still Life Reflected for Two

Jacqueline Penney

My explanation of the painting

After Jerry and I are married a few years, I want to do one more large painting in the Still Life Series. I have an unusual idea for this one and purchase a very large mirror at a yard sale. I ask Jerry to help me set it up in the back yard on a card table under my beautiful, huge maple tree. This painting will be different. It will not have a table cloth. The mirror reflects the sky that is very blue this particular day, and the large branches of the tree span a large area in the reflection. The table top will be the surface of the water I take a photo.

In the four years before we are married, Jerry and I do fun things together when we visit between New York and New Jersey. When he comes to Cutchogue, I have the table beautifully set with crystal glasses we purchase together — and always freshly cut flowers and candles. I love to cook and he loves my cooking. After our small garden and fish pond are beautifully designed and installed by Connie Cross, this now becomes our view as we eat. 

I bring the table and mirror inside. I gather my props and carefully arranged them on the mirror. I place the light to shine on the wooden swan, and it creates a halo on the mirror (water.) 

I paint the background and water, and decide to paint the foreground and leave the reflection of the tree branches for later. It takes a while to paint everything on the table plus their reflections. I have fun painting two fish in the water, two swans in the distance that symbolize our union. My light stand is a bit of a challenge, supposedly standing under water, but I plugged it in anyway. 

When I finally paint the reflection of the tree limbs I feel uncomfortable — even upset. It looks and feels ominous, contrived. I decide to add a rowboat on the distant shore.

Our marriage lasted twelve years. I must have used the boat to get away, and I gained too much weight.

Jacqueline Penney

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Jacqueline Penney