Penelope Smith

The painter, the gardener and the chef.

These three passions intertwine and make up the enjoyable life of Penelope Smith. “I love life and I love beauty,” she says. “I cook because I love the garden. I love the garden because I cook, and I plant the flowers because I paint.”

Penelope goes further, explaining how her circle of life and art feeds off of each other: “After I come in from the garden, I am full of energy and ready to go.” She describes her one-acre garden hidden away in a prestigious quiet neighborhood in Atlanta, as English or Mediterranean, where she grows camellias, redbuds, poppies and sunflowers.

“It is evolving all the time because I move things and change things. I made a castle out of bushes. … This year I am shaping hollies into birds.” As an added bonus to her love of nature, Penelope has discovered the beauty of Kennesaw Mountain, where she hikes twice a week. The mountain is a wild mountain with small trails. “It is my spa, pedicure, plastic surgery. And it’s good for my lungs, legs and everything. I have never been happier since I discovered the mountain.”

Her artistry consists of unique mediums using large cloth sheeting. She takes a brush and hot wax and waxes the outline of the drawing, dying the wax into the resist line.

Flower pressing is another form of self-expression. She takes items grown from her garden and presses them into a book. Penelope also demonstrates her artistic eye with papier-mâché sculpturing and doll-making.

As for living a fulfilled life, Penelope reminds us that life should be adventurous and nonjudgmental. “There is so much beauty everywhere … just open your eyes and do not wear blinders.”

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