ALLEN C. HILGENDORF Landscape Artist & Muralist 2024-01-03
Born and raised on a mixed farm in rural Ontario Allen Hilgendorf fondly recalled his upbringing remembering chore time, maple syruping and harvests. His deep appreciation of nature was reflected in his early childhood drawings. Wild animals were often the source of his inspiration. His urge to travel inspired him to go west and work as a ranch hand during the 1970’s. His natural ability in sketching and painting showed promise and his work started to sell.
An automobile accident near Durham crushed his pelvis in 1991 and forced him to retrain. He attended the School of Design & Visual Arts at the Owen Sound campus of Georgian College where he honed his artistic skills, making the Dean’s List in all four semesters. He received many awards.
Since then Allen excelled as a landscape painter specializing in giant interior and exterior murals seen on walls in many towns and communities. For example, there is a train station scene in the hamlet of Wilberforce or the horse logging scene on the south wall of Vance Motors in Bancroft depicting logging at the Eagles Nest painted in 2011. A winter storm in 2021 damaged this mural but Dr. Henrik (Henry) Christiansen digitalized it in 2022. It was reprinted and hung by Lou Freymond on behalf of the Bancroft Area Forestry Association. In all Allen painted 100+ murals over two decades. Allen also painted murals of local NHL hockey players in the Village of Haliburton.
I first met Allen when he spoke at the Bancroft Bible Chapel as a Shantymen Missionary, a member of the Shantymen’s Christian Association established in 1906 by William Henderson. Allen was a missionary and outreach minister. He talked about boarding freighters passing through the Welland Canal to speak to the sailors. He also spoke at a small chapel in McArthur’s Mills. When he joined the Freymond hunt camp one fall for the two week deer hunt Allen passed out some of his prints. I still have mine, “The Baker Place”.
Allen died in Owen Sound of prostrate cancer, at the age of 56, on August 4, 2013.
