Growing up on a farm in southern Alberta instilled a passion for landscapes in artist Brent Laycock and he has successfully spun that love of the land, along with a talent for painting watercolours and acrylics, into a distinguished career as a professional artist over the past three decades. Visitors to the Leighton Art Centre can view a wide sampling of Laycock’s work at a new exhibit opening March 3.
“I like looking at the sky and the interaction with the light and the objects that are on the ground and the geology of the landscape,” he said. “I think most people have some emotional reaction to the landscape and that’s what I try to capture and transmit in my artwork.”
“Splashing Around” runs until April 14 and will feature about 30 of Laycock’s landscape and floral paintings, primarily in the watercolour medium. An artist’s reception, open to the public, will be held at the Leighton Art Centre on March 10 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Laycock, who has Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Brigham Young University in Utah, said he is captivated by a feature of the watercolour medium that many artists find frustrating.
“The thing I like about watercolour is that the paint has a bit of a mind of its own,” he explained. “When you have a wet brushstroke and you put another brushstroke into it, without doing anything else, that paint will move and blur and run around and it will do a bunch of stuff on its own. That independent activity of the paint creates a very interesting effect, but it’s also difficult to control.”
Although he enjoys painting outdoors and creating art from photographs, Laycock said he doesn’t aim for absolute accuracy in his work. In his university days, he studied the relation of music to art and, to this day, he often incorporates musical features into his paintings.
“I would think of musical concepts like melody and rhythm and repetition in a visual way,” he said. “Even now, if I’m painting a picture of mountains, I’ll still think of these rhythmic concerns and contrasts. All of these principles apply in any art form, so I find it helpful to think in an abstract way, by thinking of how music works.”
He said the exhibit is called “Splashing Around” to reflect the first few brushstrokes that begin a painting. Often, they are carefree and loose, and Laycock wanted the title of the exhibit to reflect a feeling of fun as well as the freedom to experiment in art.
He said that throughout his 30-year career, and the evolution of his own personal style, one of the greatest joys he receives from his craft has remained the same.
“If I see sights that are thrilling to me it offers an opportunity to share them with other people,” he said. “I love it when other people can enjoy the work that I do and maybe there’s something in it that lifts their spirits a bit.”
Happy Barlow, Leighton Art Centre Sales and Museum Shop Manager, said Laycock is an artist with a “huge following” and the Centre is very excited to host an exhibit of his work.
“He’s very well known and liked in the Calgary area and beyond,” Barlow said. “I feel he has his own unique style that is very free-spirited. A lot of watercolour artists tend to maybe be a bit more hesitant in their approach and I find his approach quite bold.”
She said there will be a large variety of pricing and subject matter in the art work exhibited. Many of the pieces incorporate the mountains, prairies, wooded areas, creeks and streams of the Southern Alberta landscape. Examples of his floral work will also be on display.
Copies of Laycock’s book, “Waterton: Brush & Pen,” which showcases his paintings, as well as prose by author Fred Stenson, will be sold in the shop. Laycock’s instructional DVD, “Understanding Acrylics” will also be available.
Barlow said a one-day watercolour painting workshop, taught by Laycock and scheduled for March 17, is now full, with a waiting list. Registrations are currently being accepted for an additional class they’ve added for March 24 and she said no experience is necessary to participate.
For more information or to register for a workshop, contact Leighton Art Centre at (403) 931-3633.
