Early Life and Formation David Alexander Colville, born in Toronto on August 24, 1920, embarked on a life that would indelibly mark the landscape of Canadian art. His early years were characterized by mobility as his father, a Scottish immigrant, pursued work in construction projects across Ontario and then Nova Scotia. This peripatetic upbringing culminated in a move to Amherst, Nova Scotia, in 1929—a location that would profoundly shape his artistic sensibility. A severe bout of pneumonia during those formative years forced a period of isolation, fostering an introspective nature and ignit…