“Pennock’s works are as much about the act of painting as they are the subject. The artist's palette knife becomes an extension of his psyche, orchestrating a kind of visceral catharsis, a shedding of emotion and purification of mind.
Pennock searches for solace in colour, gesture, mark; his intuitive layering of paint like a cognitive cleansing that gradually re-establishes equilibrium.”
Elli Walsh, A Forgotten Traveller exhibition essay, 2019
Colin Pennock is an abstract landscape artist based in Australia
Born in Ireland, Pennock came to Australia at the age of one and 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 Creative Art 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).
News + Current Work
2024 was a busy year for Colin, starting with Arthouse Gallery’s annual Summer show followed by a group exhibition at George Place. Colin also took part in a residency at Fowlers Gap in May, with In The Field Artist Workshops and had work included in the about-place / about-face exhibition at Caloundra Regional Gallery in May.
Colin is now represented in Melbourne by OTOMYS gallery and exhibited his first collection for the gallery in July 2024.
His exhibition, Passing Through previewed at BMGART in Adelaide in October and he was featured in Christine Hall’s new book, Studio Project, which launched in November.
2025 is set to be another busy one with Colin’s first solo exhibition at Noosa Regional Gallery in February, a new exhibition at Arthouse Gallery in Sydney in May, and Otomys in October. He is also taking two residencies this year, the first at all that we are in Tasmania in April, followed by NG Art in France in June.
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