Amy Panek, right, makes a suggestion during a drawing class at the Pickard Hall "Casis" Gallery.

Columbia Missourian



Local teacher finds new way

to display painting in London

By Mark Ziegler
Missourian staff writer


You don't have to be considered a great master to get one of your paintings in a great art museum. Just ask Amy Panek.

Miss Panek, who teaches drawing classes at Stephens College,
made an unexpected contribution to the National Gallery of London during her seven years (1974-81) as a student at two London art schools.

While attending the University of London's Slade School of Fine Art, Miss Panek painted a copy of "War and Peace." She sat in the museum day after day, carefully re-enacting Ruebens' classic work. Working in the museum did not afford much privacy, and unsolicited comments and criticisms were abundant. When she had enough, Miss Panek abandoned her reproduction in mid-stroke one day, never to see her work again.

"I didn't have enough bravado to continue despite the criticism. I never went back after that day. So the National Gallery still has one of my paintings," she says. "I wonder if I can put that on my resume."

Although not yet considered a master, Miss Panek, 29, has spent the past 11 years crafting her considerable skills. A 1974 Stephens College graduate with a double major in art and business, Miss Panek's first job was as a management trainee with Halls in Kansas City. But the allure of an overseas art school soon became overwhelming, and Miss Panek went to London to study at the Chelsea College of Art.

"I felt a need to do it. I felt I had some talent, and I wanted to continue with my art career," she says.

Miss Panek had only planned to stay in England for a year, but between school and odd jobs, such as working in a pub and teaching English to French children, the stay lasted until May 1981.

During that time, she received a London Degree in Art and Design (LDAD), similar to a master's degree, from Chelsea and attended the Slade School of Fine Art, where she received an Honours Degree in Fine Art.

Miss Panek says there was a considerable difference between the two schools and her experiences as a student at Stephens.

"At Chelsea, they were encouraging, but at Slade they were much crueler. It was much more competitive, so I was bent on helping myself," Miss Panek says. "I was given more of a chance to be independent. There were no real classes. They just put you in a studio and told you to get to work."

"Students in London didn't necessarily want to learn how to paint or draw," she says. "They were more interested in aesthetic values -- the use of types of media and the use of film. Here, you have to show students what can be exciting. The students are much more independent in England than at Stephens where they take classes all day."

In August 1981, Miss Panek returned to Stephens, where she has been teaching ever since.

Now Miss Panek is looking for a job and trying to get her work into galleries. Her chief artistic concern, she says, is "the use of soft light and colors to describe form. The use of light and making a composition out of what is there." Most of her recent work is in oil and charcoal. Some of her works are on display at the Hawthorn Gallery of Art, 1013 E. Walnut St., through July 19.