English-born Penny Smith qualified as a furniture designer at the High Wycombe College of Art and Technology, Buckinghamshire, from 1967-69 before emigrating to Australia in 1970. Self-taught in ceramics, by 1974 she was teaching pottery and adult education classes at the Hobart College of Advanced Education. By 1977, she had set up a studio on Mt Nelson and was lecturing at the Tasmanian School of Art, University of Tasmania. She went on to become Head of the Ceramics Studio there, specialising in architectural ceramics and tableware products. From 1983-85 she studied for a Master of Fine Arts (Ceramics) at the University of Tasmania. She retired in 1999 to concentrate on research and on her own studio practice. Work may be marked with an impressed 'PS'.