Glenn Clark, born in 1959 in Kelowna BC received a diploma in Fine Arts (distinction) from the Okanagan College in 1988, and his BFA from the University of Calgary in 1991. After graduation, he moved to Penticton where he continues to run his studio and work at the Penticton Art Gallery

In 1998 Clark began working with the defunct Penticton Vees Hockey Club to create a series of paintings depicting the team during its glory days, the mid-fifties. In 1955 the Vees whipped the heavily favored Russians 5-0 to take back the World Championship for Canada. Little is mentioned in the history books about their amazing Cinderella run at hockey supremacy; After exhibiting the work in 2000 at the Penticton Museum, Clark created a commissioned mural of the team on the Elks Hall in Penticton. The mural has been featured on Hockey Night in Canada twice. Clark donates his work to be auctioned to support many local charities including the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame, The Meadowlark Festival, The Vernon Art Gallery, The Grand Forks Art Gallery and the Penticton Art Gallery. Glenn organizes a Plein Air Paint Out through the Penticton Art Gallery and an annual children’s painting tent at the Penticton Children’s Festival that attracts over one thousand participants.

Glenn does not limit himself to painting figurative subjects. In 2007 Clark embarked on a journey retracing the sketching trips of the late E.J. Hughes who painted the same sites some fifty years earlier. What started out as tribute to one of this Province’s great artists has evolved into something far greater than what anyone could have realized. These paintings act as a historical record documenting the ever-changing face of the province and the evolving landscape. While the encroachment of development is always noticeable, these two artists have sought refuge from the ever-increasing pressures of development through their art. In seeking out the natural wonders of the province they recognized that our attempt to tame the landscape is in fact dwarfed by the magnitude of it all.

Glenn continues to paint annual series of oil sketches that depict the power the beauty of the British Columbia Landscape has over its residents. In July 2011 Glenn was selected by Parks Canada to paint at Glacier National Park. Clark’s plein air sketches capture the spontaneity of the moment with the bravado and confidence that can only be obtained when one is working in the moment. At times the Okanagan storm skies can command deep respect with their rays of light piercing through dark clouds to shine a single sunray on a particular orchard or vineyard in the distance. Glenn captures these brief moments exquisitely in these small and evocative paintings. These gems faithfully document the grandeur of the landscape while subtly recording the intervention of man and industry into his landscapes. The sketches are used later as the primary source material for his larger works painted back in the studio. These later works are technically different to the field sketches distilling the ideas, spirit and essence of the field sketches and transforming them into a tighter, richer and more luminous depiction of the subject. Seeing both works creates an interesting dialogue and illustrates the process an artist goes through in determining composition through the editing of the subject to capture what the artist views as important while removing the items deemed extraneous to the finished work. In reaching back and re-recording Hughes’s and subsequent journeys around the province Glenn has captured not only his spirit but also the very essence of the Canadian identity as first distilled by the Group of Seven and the Railway Painters before them and in doing so bridges the gap in art history between them. These paintings personify the spirit of the frontier painters who first documented the landscape and provide an invaluable record for future artistic journeys.