| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: |
Theodore (Ted) Schintz was born in Almelo, Holland in 1904. Growing up he was always interested in art and in the North American West which he discovered through films and the art of Charlie Russell. He attended agricultural college as a young man at the urging of his mother and later went to work on an estate in Prussia. At the age of 19 he entered the army for compulsory duty. When his army duties were finished he spent a year travelling through Germany before deciding to come to Canada in 1924. He settled first in Strathmore, and then Rocky Mountain House where he worked in a lumber camp. He built a cabin and unsuccessfully tried homesteading for a winter in the Brazeau district before moving to High River, but, on receiving word that his mother was ill he returned to Holland. Following her death three months later, he decided to stay and study art in Munich, Germany. He completed one year of study before the lure of the west brought him back to Alberta. He moved back to the High River area where he worked and lived on "Round T" ranch spending much of his spare time sketching the animals and people there.
He was married in Calgary to a young English woman, Janet Kaye, whom he had met and corresponded with several years earlier. In the summer of 1931 they settled on a homestead by the side of the Highwood River. That fall he travelled to Montreal to study painting under Adam Sherriff Scott, and in the spring of 1932, fourteen of his paintings were accepted for an exhibition at the Montreal Art Gallery. He spent that summer painting with an artist's group in the Laurentians before resuming his studies with Scott in Montreal. In the spring of 1933 he returned to Munich for instruction at the Academy of Arts, working under the famous German painter Angelo Jank for two years. He arrived back in Canada with his family prior to the outbreak of World War Two. Times were tough, as most of his money from the family clothing business in Holland was inaccessible during the war, so he began to try to supplement his income by selling his art.
In 1941, he sold several paintings at a small exhibition in High River and the following year he had an exhibition at the Hudson's Bay store in Calgary. The reviews were favourable and he began to sell his works throughout the province. He was commissioned to produce the covers for several local magazines as well as to illustrate a school reading book. The years of worry and strain took their toll, however, and he became ill and unable to paint for the next two years. In 1950 he returned to painting and had a successful exhibition at the Coste House in Calgary. He became a member of the Alberta Society of Artists in 1951 -52 and continued to paint until his death in 1975.
Working mainly in oils, pastels and charcoal, his subjects include farm and ranch views, cowboy scenes with horses, Indian camps and winter mountain landscapes. His works can be found in many private collections throughout western Canada.
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