WVAM offers free curatorial tour of Losing Control of the Landscape: Ross Penhall, November 18
The artist draws on his experiences as a former firefighter for his iconic landscapes
Ross Penhall, Anchorage, 2023, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 inches. Courtesy of the artist/photo by Ward Bastian
West Vancouver Art Museum presents a free curatorial tour of Losing Control of the Landscape: Ross Penhall (which runs to December 16) on November 18 at 2 pm
ROSS PENHALL’S PRACTICE as a painter and printmaker developed alongside his work as a firefighter for the District of West Vancouver. A native of the municipality, he retired from DWV Fire Department in 2010 after working there for 29 years. He is known for iconic landscape paintings, which the West Vancouver Art Museum is presenting within the context of climate change and broader discussions about the effects of industry on the natural environment.
Losing Control of the Landscape: Ross Penhall offers viewers a chance to look at nature in fresh ways.
“As someone who has spent a large portion of his career battling urban and interface fires in the North Shore’s mountainous terrain, Penhall is very familiar with the risks involved when treading into nature,” says WVAM curator Hilary Letwin in a release. “This exhibition explores the ways in which Penhall translates these risks into his works, transforming his own personal tension into compositional tensions.
“West Coast seascapes offer dark skies, and the inky, turbid waters warn of unrest,” Letwin says. “Within the tightly packed mountains of his coastal works, narrow walls encroach on the viewer and the skies at the top of the compositions taper to a mere slit at the horizon line. In recent years, the geographical focus of Penhall’s work has stretched across Canada to incorporate the open vistas of the Prairies and the distinct coastline of the East Coast. In contrast to his West Coast works, they suggest the promise of the scent of grass and a light breeze.”
The exhibition owes its title to the way human beings cannot control Mother Nature.
“Penhall’s works display an overwhelming sense of awe for untamed settings and a natural comfort in pastoral scenes,” Letwin says. “The farther east one goes, the more the landscape has been shaped by settlers. It is not a coincidence that this cultivated land should feel more comfortable to Penhall and, by extension, his viewers. Penhall readily recognizes his role as a landscape painter working on stolen Indigenous lands. Through his experience both working in and being inspired by the natural world, he holds deep respect for the environment, recognizing that nature is beyond human control.”
In addition to Penhall’s large-scale works, the exhibition features his recent panel studies, most of which were painted en plein air.
Penhall attended the studio art program at Capilano University (then College) and studied print making with Wayne Eastcott. He also engaged in extra-sessional studies at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design (then College of Art). His work can be found in private, corporate, and public collections across Canada and the U.S.
More information is at https://westvancouverartmuseum.ca/.
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