Donald R. Pentz
Artist Info
| Born: | Bridgewater, Nova Scotia | |
| Studied: | Mount Allison University | B.F.A. 1996 |
| University of Regina | M.F.A. 1979 | |
| Banff School of Fine Arts | Summer, 1979 |
Artist's Biography
A resident of Halifax, NS, Don Pentz is a graduate of Mt. Allison University (BFA '66) and the University of Regina (MFA '79). An elected member of the Royal Candian Academy (RCA) and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (CSPWC), Pentz has also received awards from the Canada Council, Nova Scotia Talent Trust, Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Nova Scotia Arts Council.
His work has been exhibited across Canada, in parts of the United States and as far afield as England, Japan, Cuba, China and France. He is a founding member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia (VANS) and in 2007 was inducted into the VANS Honour Roll.
Artist Statement
The "ENIGMA LANDSCAPE" paintings have been an on-going series for the past several years. They depict a land in upheaval___eroded by the elements, ripped open by earthquake, scarred by glacial movement; a land that has been stressed, at least in the artist's imagination. In fact, they are landscapes of the imagination, not site-specific to any particular geographic location.
Simple in composition (a sky area, horizon line and a land mass) there is no attempt made to portray the land realistically. One reads the painted and stained texture as something rock-like or tundra-looking or cliff-face, but these areas appear more by accident than design. It could be said that these textured paintings are landscapes disguised as abstracts. Viewers are free to see whatever type of landscape the painted surface suggests to them.
What informs my art and image-making - the land: it's colour, texture, rhythms and geological strata. I make no attempt to copy but rather to interpret or adopt from its shapes and stains.
My "landscapes" derive from a uniting of geological place and the landscapes of my imagination. They come into being through a non-objective process of working and over-painting the texture of the canvas surface. Paint is pushed, scrubbed, scraped and thinned to washes, somewhat irritating the natural elements that have shaped and stained the land. Through the manipulation of material I am drawn toward an unseen image until something begins to appear out of the scars, scrapes and pigments that have been left behind.
Black seemed like the ideal bare-bones choice to give expression to the simplified forms and rhythms found in Nature. Black has power and versatility and by limiting the palette to just it plus earth stain, I'm attempting to give a visual voice to its dark strength.
The painted image is made up of a sky area and a land mass, separated by a horizontal line. This gives the over-all composition its connection to landscape. I embark upon a painting as though on a journey. Creative satisfaction derives not so much from arriving at the finished image but from what is discovered and invented along the way. Acting as my own force of nature, I work the textured surface much like a glacier plowing and gouging its way over raw land. Like glacial striations, the image of marks and stains I leave behind is the record of my journey.
D. Pentz
Awards & Recognition
| 1967 | Maritime Art Assoc.__Centennial Award for Best Painting |
| 1972 | maritime Art Assoc.__Purchase Award for Best Painting |
| 1975 | Professional Artists Award (NS Cov.): Study in Europe |
| 1976 | Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy (R.C.A.) |
| 1978 | Arts Award: Saskatchewan Arts Board |
| Nova Scotia Talent Trust | |
| 1979 | Twining Scholarship: Banff School of Fine Arts |
| 1980 | Canada Council Grant |
| 1982 | Parks Canada Commission |
| 1985 | "Wings Upon the Wind" Commission: Bradford Exchange |
| 2000 | Canada Council Travel Grant |
| 2002 | Nova Scotia Arts Council "Creation" Grant |
| Elected to the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (C.S.P.W.C.) | |
| Woolfit Award: "Open Water" Exhib. (C.S.P.W.C.) | |
| 2007 | Inducted into the Visual Arts NS Honour Roll |
Collections
| Canada Council Art Bank | Nova Scotia Art Bank |
| Art Gallery of Nova Scotia | Imperial (ESSO) Oil |
| Shell Canada | Husky Oil |
| St. Mary's University | Confederation Center Art Gallery |
| Mount St. Vincent University | St. Francis Xavier University |
| Mount Allison University | University of Regina |
| Sun Life of Canada | Trans-Maritime Quebec Pipeline |
| Teleglobe Canada | Royal Bank of Canada |
| Bowater Mersey Pulp & Paper | Parks Canada |
| Fraser Co. Pulp & Paper | NS Dept. of Natural Resources |
| Coopers & Lybrand | The Great Eastern Corporation, Ltd. |
| Maritime Tel & Tel | Acadia University |
| Maritime Broadcasting Corp. | Irving Ltd. |
| American Museum of Fly Fishing | Cdn. Soc. of Painters in Water Colour |
| Osaka Foundation of Culture | Lt. Gov. of NS: Government House |
| Beaverbrook Art Gallery | Calgary Marriott Hotel |
| Glenbow Museum | Louhu Cultural Center, China |
| New Brunswick Art Bank |
Solo Exhibitions
| 1967 | Atlantic Provinces Art Circuit |
| 1968 | Wells Gallery, Ottawa |
| Atlantic Provinces Art Circuit | |
| 1970 | DesBrisay Museum, Bridgewater, NS |
| 1971 | Shaw-Rimmington Art Gallery, Toronto |
| 1972 | Wells Gallery, Ottawa |
| 1974 | Memorial University Art Gallery, NFLD |
| New Brunswick Museum, St. John, NB | |
| 1975 | St. Mary's University, Halifax, NS |
| DesBrisay Museum, Bridgewater, NS | |
| 1976 | Manuge Galleries, Halifax, NS |
| 1978 | Subway Gallery, Calgary, AB |
| 1979 | Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK |
| Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS | |
| 1980 | Dresden Galleries, Halifax, NS |
| Lunenburg Art Gallery, Lunenburg, NS | |
| 1981 | Dresden Galleries, Halifax, NS |
| 1984 | Gallery 67, Halifax, NS |
| 1985 | Gallery 67, Halifax, NS |
| 1986 | Lunenburg Art Gallery, Lunenburg, NS |
| DesBrisay Meseum, Bridgewater, NS | |
| Atlantic Salmon Federation, Montreal, QC | |
| 1987 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| 1988 | Fraser Company, Edmunston, NB |
| 1989 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| La Galerie Continentale, Montreal, QC | |
| 1991 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| 1995 | Moorings Gallery, Mahone Bay, NS |
| 1998 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| 1999 | Kejimkujik National Park, NS |
| 2000 | Southern Vermont Arts Center, Vermont |
| Lunenburg Art Gallery, Lunenburg, NS | |
| Studio 21, Halifax, NS | |
| 2001 | Trinity Gallery, St. John, NB |
| 2004 | Peer Gallery, Lunenburg, NS |
| 2006 | Agnes Bugera Gallery, Edmonton, AB |
| Fog Forest Gallery, Sackville, NB | |
| CBC Georges Goguen Gallery, Moncton, NB | |
| Kejimkujik National Park, NS | |
| Trinity Galleries, St. John, NB | |
| Artz Gallery, Halifax, NS | |
| 2007 | Wallace Galleries, Calgary, AB |
| Studio 21, Halifax, NS | |
| 2008 | Peer Gallery, Lunenburg, NS |
| 2009 | Gallery of Atlantic School of Theology, Halifax, NS |
| Gallery 78, Fredericton, NB | |
| 2010 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| Kejimkujik National Park , NS | |
| 2012 | St. FX University Gallery, NS |
| 2013 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| Retrospective 2013, Grange Gallery, NS Archives, Halifax, NS |
Group Exhibitions
| 1967 | Maritime Art Association |
| Survey '67, Montreal, QC | |
| EXPO '67, Monreal, QC | |
| 1968 | New Brunswick Prints & Drawings |
| Atlantic Awards Show | |
| Canadian Society of Graphic Art | |
| 1972 | Maritime Art Association |
| 1974 | Mount St. Vincent University Art Gallery (Artist's Media) |
| Nova Scotia x 15 | |
| 1975 | Nova Scotia Art Bank |
| 1976 | Scollard Gallery, Toronto, ON |
| OLYMPICS (Canada), Montreal | |
| Graphics Atlantic | |
| 1978 | University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK |
| Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK | |
| Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff (Young Artists of the Prairies) | |
| 1980 | Nova Scotia Art Bank |
| "Moncton Collects", University of Moncton, NB | |
| "Emerging Canadian Artists", Muttart Gallery, Calgary, AB | |
| Shell Canada, "Atlantic Artists", Calgary, AB | |
| Gallery Pascal, Toronto, ON | |
| 1982 | Lunenburg Art Gallery, Lunenburg, NS |
| Dresden Galleries, "Reunion 3", Halifax, NS | |
| 1984 | Fraser Cultural Centre, NS |
| R.C.A. '84, Holland College, PEI | |
| "Ars Scara", Halifax, NS | |
| University of Regina, "Anniversary Show", Regina, SK | |
| 1985 | "The Art of Interpretation", Parks Canada, Halifax, NS |
| 1986 | Conclave '86, New Brunswick |
| Visual Arts NS "10 Years", Halifax, NS | |
| 1987 | Windsor Wildlife Exhibition |
| 1988 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| Bowater's "Wildlife Exhib." Zwickers Gallery, Halifax, NS | |
| Lunenburg Art Gallery "Fish Exhib." | |
| 1989 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| "Atque Ars", Sackville, NB | |
| 1990 | Miramichi Salmon Museum, Doaktown, NB |
| Atlantic Waterfowl Festival, Sackville, NB | |
| Osaka Triennale '90, Osaka, Japan | |
| 1991 | American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont |
| Gallery 78, Fredericton, NB | |
| 1996 | "Far & Wide", Visual Arts Nova Scotia |
| Studio 21, Halifax, NS | |
| 1998 | Visual Arts NS, DesBrisay Museum, Bridgewater, NS |
| 1999 | Studio 21, Halifax, NS |
| Trinity Galleries, St. John, NB | |
| 2000 | Trinity Galleries, St. John, NB |
| 2001 | Fog Forest Gallery, Sackville, NB |
| 2002 | Sattler Studio & Gallery "Colour & Light", Nova Scotia |
| C.S.P.W.C. "Open Water", Halifax, NS | |
| Peer Gallery, Lunenburg, NS | |
| 2003 | Galerie Conseil General du Pay-de-Dome, France |
| 2004 | "Atlantic Water Colour Showcase" Gov. House, NS |
| "Coastal Scenes" Art Sales & Rental (AGNS) | |
| 2005 | Homer Watson Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON |
| Galeria de Art Auturo Regeiro, Cuba | |
| "Endless Possibilities" Roberts Gallery, Toronto, ON | |
| 2006 | Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe Claire, QC |
| The Prairie Art Gallery, Grand Prairie, AB | |
| McMullen Gallery, Edmonton, AB | |
| Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery, Markham, ON | |
| 2007 | Cdn. Society of Painters in Water Colour, Craig Gallery, Dartmouth, NS |
| 2008 | "BIG CANVAS" Wallace Galleries, Calgary, AB |
| 2009 | C.S.P.W.C. Regional Exhib. St. FX Art Gallery, NS |
| Fog Forest Gallery, Sackville, NB | |
| 50th Anniversary Exhib. Beaverbrook Art Gallery, NB | |
| 2010 | C.S.P.W.C. Regional Exhib. Inverness Art Centre |
| Sattler Studio and Gallery, Nova Scotia | |
| 2012 | Black and Blue (2-person exhib.) Acadia University, NS |
| Black and Blue, Cape Breton University, NS | |
| Black and Blue, St. FX Art Gallery, NS | |
| 2013 | Black and Blue, Truro Community College, NS |
| Black and Blue, Artsplace, Annapolis Royal, NS | |
| 2014 | Boucher & Pentz, Yarmouth Co. Museum, NS |
| Louhu Cultural Center, Shenzhen, China |