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Born in Ireland, Colin Pennock came to Australia as a young child. He has since lived and worked in Ireland, Australia, London and New York.
He came to painting and drawing from unlikely beginnings as a Police Constable in Northern Ireland, sketching whilst on duty in the height of the Troubles. These sketch books earned him a four year scholarship to St Martins School Of Art in London from 1985-89, where he achieved a BA Hons Fine Art, Painting.
Currently based in the Noosa Hinterland rainforest in Queensland, Pennock’s distinctive abstract landscapes draw on his extensive knowledge of technique with textural applications from thick impasto to delicate glazing. His uniquely original style was born from the desire to be immersed in nature and find harmony after turbulent past experience.
Pennock has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally, and his work is held in prominent collections including the University of Ulster, the British Consulates in New York and Washington, the Australian RACV Collection, the Brian Sewell Collection in London and the Hawkesbury Regional Gallery Collection.
He received a residency at NG Art Creative Residency in France (2022) and has been the winner of the Alan Gamble Award, Mosman Art Prize (2005) and a finalist in the Len Fox Painting Award (2016), Mosman Art Prize (2019, 2014, 2005) and Fleurieu Peninsula Art Prize (2008, 2004).
Traverses Documentary on Vimeo - Watch Here
In May / June 2024 Colin Pennock exhibited a large scale painting ‘Space to Age and Find Peace’ at the Caloundra Regional Gallery in exhibition about-place / about-face. Curated by writer and artist, Kevin Wilson, about-place / about-face takes a very different viewpoint on the concept of ‘natural place’. Working from the assumption that our perspective and understanding of ‘natural place’ is imbued with our own lived experience, 16 artists have produced artworks ranging from painting, photography, digital animation, video, sculpture, moving image installation and collaborative works that examine the idea that when we look at a place, we inevitably look in a mirror at ourselves. Colin Pennock was featured alongside exhibiting 16 Artists in the ’Traverses’ documentary which ran concurrent with the exhibition at Caloundra Regional Gallery.
Talking with Painters Podcast - Listen Here
Maria Stoljar talks enthusiastically with Australian painter Colin Pennock, about how he became an artist, the influences, painting techniques and more.
Colin Pennock’s work could be described as landscape painting but it certainly doesn’t fall into that category in any traditional sense. Although there’s almost always a horizon line, or the remnants of one, he throws the traditional ideas of sky, land and sea into ambiguity. The glorious pieces of impasto paint which are so distinctive in his work provide a fragmented way of seeing the world and it’s almost impossible for the viewer not to feel some response to the energy and movement generated in his work.