Artwork:
Donald Pentz. Ancient Landscape #36. Acrylic on canvas. 2005.
This evocative landscape captures the essence of an ancient, weathered terrain through richly textured layers of crimson, ochre, and burnt earth tones. A distant horizon beneath a pale sky contrasts with the dynamic, fractured forms below, creating the impression of a geological cross-section that reveals the hidden depths of the land. Balancing abstraction with a strong sense of place, Pentz transforms the landscape into a powerful meditation on time, memory, and the enduring forces that shape the earth.
“As the title… suggests, the image depicts a landscape that has been shaped by millennia of upheaval and weathering from the elements. …the painting is highly textured. Much of the development of the image relies on the process of applying and then removing paint. Some of these colours remain in the crevices of the texture to help define the shapes that emerge, and create the features of the land and its hint of human habitation.” – Donald Pentz.
Artist:
Donald Pentz’s artistic practice spans acrylic, oil, and watercolour painting, moving fluidly between abstraction and landscape. His work is informed by the natural world, geological history, and the passage of time. In his acclaimed Ancient Landscape series, Pentz employs highly textured surfaces created through the application and removal of paint, allowing colour to settle into crevices and reveal forms suggestive of weathered terrain and geological strata. Alongside his studio practice, he is an accomplished watercolourist who regularly sketches en plein air, particularly in the wilderness regions of Nova Scotia, bringing a naturalist’s observation and reverence for place to his work.
Born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, in 1940, Pentz earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Mount Allison University in 1966, a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Regina in 1979, and also studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts. A recipient of numerous awards, grants, and commissions, he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1976 and to the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour in 2002. In 2007, he was inducted into the Visual Arts Nova Scotia Honour Roll.
Pentz has exhibited extensively throughout Canada and internationally in the US, England, France, Cuba, Japan, and Australia. A founding member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia and the Peer Gallery in Lunenburg, his work is represented in numerous public, corporate, university, and private collections, including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Canada Council Art Bank, Parks Canada, and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Deep Dive:
1987 CBC Halifax Artscope video featuring Don Pentz.
Kejimkujik National Park’s website. The Park is the inspiration for the paintings in Don Pentz’s book Images of the Keji Country.
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s website.
Visual Arts Nova Scotia’s website.
Foundation:
The Canadian Art Preservation Foundation posts short biographies and information on artists and artwork from its collection in a not-so-subtle attempt to capture your attention and interest in our mission, but we also just want to keep this artwork in view. We are excited about the art we collect and want to share it with you.
CAPF is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the artwork of Canada’s superstar artists for future generations to examine, study and exhibit – the ones you know and the ones you might not know so well. We accept artwork, journals, notes, letters, exhibition catalogues and anything else that might comprise a visual and/or intellectual “portrait” (ahem, please pardon the pun) of a particular artist.
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