Last modified: Sunday, January 4, 2009 6:42 PM EST Fernando Penagos works on a painting in the kitchen of his Attleboro home. A moveable feast BY ALEX SPEREDELOZZI CORRESPONDENT ATTLEBORO - You may not have heard of Fernando Penagos, but if you have spent any time in this city, you most likely have seen his work. In fact, you might well have dined alongside it. At the Vineyard Restaurant on Route 1, Penagos painted a mural of celebrants gathered around a table. At the Mediterranean Grill, also along the busy commercial highway, you will find three of his murals and a grapevine he made out of copper tubing and aluminum mesh. At Wetherlaine's on Route 123, still another of his distinctive murals depicts people relaxing at a bar. And at Shanghai Gardens on Route 1, Penagos created a three-dimensional warrior in bright red and mustard yellow. It serves as the centerpiece of the restaurant's sign. More recently, Penagos has been going in a new direction. Since 2005, he has been creating fine art under the rubric of motion. His brightly colored acrylics with sweeping brushstrokes capture with a long "shutter speed" the movement of cyclists and football players. Energy and action splay across the still canvas. On Dec. 6, the Surreal Image Cafe with adjoining gallery, located on the first floor of the Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill, held an art show titled "Motion" to introduce Boston-area art enthusiasts to Penagos's work. The 16 paintings are on display at the gallery through Jan. 31. Surreal Image owner Peter Dong features six artists a year in his gallery, one every two months. Penagos is the second to have a solo exhibition. The "Motion" paintings have also been displayed at the Attleboro Arts Museum and Jaec's Cafe on Union Street. People comment on Penagos's art "all the time," said Dong. "They love it...the color, concept, motion, energy, speed...definitely grabs a lot of people's attention." Originally from Guatemala, Penagos emigrated to the United States when he turned 18, at a time of upheaval in his homeland. "A very dangerous time, the middle 1970s," he said. Penagos went first to Canada where his father, a cellist, played for the Symphony Orchestra of Nova Scotia. Soon after, he came to the United States. "Too cold," he said of Nova Scotia. "It was my first winter." Penagos, now 54, has been drawing and painting since he was about 4 years old. Early on, he wanted to follow his father into music. "My father gave me the cello, and that was it. No ear," he said, adding that he decided "if I can't be a musician, I'm going to be a painter." Penagos studied art in Guatemala and printing techniques in Mexico. In the United States, he studied with the famed Rhode Island artist Eugene Tonoff. "I learned the most from him," Penagos said. He later studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. Though his work has ranged from realistic to semi-abstract, Penagos has been moving away from realism. "Eventually, I want to be an abstract painter," he said. "If you just throw color at the canvas, it's not going to look very good. If it's carefully done, coordinated well, an abstract can be a very nice thing to look at." The slim Penagos, who sports silver-rimmed glasses, was inspired by cycle racing because of his affinity for riding. However, he does his cycling off road. A 24-pound silver Lite Speed titanium mountain bike with black knobby tires stands in his living room. "I go twice a week. I ride with the young guys," he said. "The most fun I have... (I) have to use every ounce of energy." Penagos works with oil and acrylic as well as watercolor occasionally. A watercolor titled "The Home in New Orleans" won him a Grumbacher Award in 2003 at the Attleboro Arts Festival. He's redoing the piece because the original was damaged by a fire on Martha's Vineyard. He counts as artistic influences the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali, the German abstract painter Hans Hofmann, and the artist and illustrator Peter Max, whose iconic art style in the 1960s found its way onto the walls of countless dorms and bedrooms. "The style, the colors - blown away by it," Penagos said, recalling his reaction as a teen to Max's work. He also counts as favorites Margot Datz and Richard Lee, both of Martha's Vineyard. Datz is an artist, muralist, and illustrator who has collaborated with Carly Simon on children's books. Penagos comes from a creative family. Along with his musician father, who now lives in Mexico and is retired from the Veracruz Symphony Orchestra, one brother is a guitarist and the other a graphic artist. His uncle plays trumpet in a Dixieland jazz band in New Orleans. When not engaged in fine arts painting, Penagos paints murals and creates ambiance pieces and signs for restaurants and other businesses throughout southern New England. For his multimedia commercial art, he uses all types of material, including wood, metal and foam. He rents a 30-by-30-foot garage to build his displays, which are sometimes huge. He built a 20-foot sign for the Park Place Plaza in Attleboro. Penagos is currently painting murals and creating "Venetian plaster" in a private residence. For the latter, he applies paint to interior walls with a spatula to produce angular lines and uses a buffing machine for a polished effect. He lives with his son Alex, 15, and his dog Musky, a male airedale terrier. "If you ever get a dog, get an airedale. Sweet dog," Penagos advises. For more information about Penagos and to view samples of his artwork, visit www.artistfernando.com and www.artistfernando.blogspot.com. He can also be contacted at fp@artistfernando.com. ALEX SPEREDELOZZI is an intern at The Sun Chronicle and is pursuing a master's degree at the Harvard Extension School. He can be contacted at asperedelozzi@hotmail.com.