When Malad artist Pennie Wolf lifts a brush dipped in oil paint to the canvas it’s her grandfather who is guiding the strokes.

    “He taught us how to look at things,” Wolf explained.

    Wolf, who has been painting with oils for about seven years, has the Singing Wolf Art Studio and Gallery in Malad. One of her paintings took first place at the Eastern Idaho State Fair two years ago and she specializes in portraits of people and paintings involving animals.

    “People tell me they like my animal paintings because it looks like their breathing,” Wolf said.

    This eye for detail was developed in her as a child during long camping trips with her grandfather in the mountains of California. Melvin Ross had nine grandchildren, Wolf included, and when they became old enough he took them on group campouts. Destinations like Yosemite National Park and the Sonoma Valley became a giant playground for learning.

    Outdoor skills learned by his grandchildren included the ability to look closely at the beauty around them.

    “He was a great guy,” Wolf said. “The great thing was he passed this on to the boys and girls.”

    When the grandchildren would visit Grandpa Ross, he would take them to his woodshop and explain to them the many things they could build.

    “We weren’t allowed to bring our toys, we had to make them,” Wolf said.

    So with guidance from their grandfather, the children would build kites, stilts and wooden guns.

    Wolf credits her grandfather with instilling in her an appreciation for how things really look and a penchant for creativity.

    Although she excelled in art while in high school, Wolf didn’t pursue an art major in college. She spent two years at Northridge University in California before quitting to marry her rancher husband, John. The years passed as she helped on his ranch and raised their children. It wasn’t until they left California and moved to a small ranch outside Malad that the urge to return to art got the better of Wolf.

    Her work begins with photographs that she takes of sunsets or vistas that strike her eye.

    “I take millions of digital photographs,” she said.

    Once she finds a photo best suited for a painting she pulls out a canvas and her oils — a medium she said she prefers because “I like to push the oil around.”

    “This is my way of relaxing,” she said as she worked on a painting at the Sagebrush Arts Festival held on the campus of Idaho State University this past weekend.

    A few feet away a covered gallery of her work was on display. Sweeping scenes of mountain vistas and a mix of animals in their natural settings were in the mix.

    When Wolf is not working at her gallery in Malad or helping her husband on their ranch, she teaches at the Art Center or at Creative Crafts & Frames in Pocatello.

    “It’s an incredible additional passion,” Wolf said with a smile.

    It’s one she likely inherited from her grandfather.