Iowa artist, Penny Christensen, is in love with the simple pleasures in life. She uses her imagination to create magic moments on canvas. Each painting is a reflection of love. Family is often portrayed in her works because to her family, love, and painting all go together.

Penny's oil paintings are created by using as many as 27 layers of paint in transparent glazes, while her acrylic paintings have over 57 layers. Painting in layers results in a multitude of splendid colors when the light passes through the layers bringing the brilliant hues together.

Pennys paintings are in all 50 states and eight foreign countries. She has received numerous awards, including Best of Show and People's choice. She has won the prestigious award for Artist of the Year in a Midwest Regional Competition. Her paintings have been on display at galleries, art museums, one woman shows and other fine art institutions across the Midwest. She has been in several international shows held in the United States. One of those shows was held in Minneopolis, Minnesota where 175 artists were picked from the United States and Canada to show and sell their work. Penny and her husband Russ have owned and operated Penny's Visions Gallery for 20 years. Their gallery shows paintings by Penny, bronzes by Russ and pottery by their daughter Christi. Penny has also been teaching from her studio for the past 25years to about 45 students a year (childern and adults) Penny and Russ's work will be in Southwest Art magazine in the year 2002.