Born: June 2, 1947 in Lethbridge, Alberta
Price Range: $500-$15,000
My interest in art, landscape, flowers, and music all stem from my childhood on the farm in southern Alberta where the expansive prairie, sky, and distant Rockies captured my imagination.
In almost all of my landscape work, I become very intrigued with the interplay of the dramatic natural forces that act upon the landscape. These forces translate into the push and pull of the visual elements in the composition.
In my work, the expression of feeling becomes a balancing act in which I attempt to give the work a sense of spirit and life though a fluid gestural painting style but still exert enough discipline over colour and composition etc. to give the piece unity. I like to allow accidental things to happen with the movement of the paint and brush so that the piece begins to take on a life of its own. After a rather loose stage of carefree direct painting, I then face the task of bringing order and enough clarity to the composition to allow the viewer both an emotional feeling and some understan
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 14,2020 from 2-5pm
The homeland of southern Alberta is where Laycock was born, raised and spent most of his life. There are always new places to discover and familiar places that need to be examined with a fresh outlook & rediscovered. The confinement of the pandemic has given us an opportunity to appreciate the rich beauties of this area. This is really the land of promise. The purpose in sharing these paintings is to communicate some of the joy that Laycock experience as he explores the landscape of southern Alberta. Waterton Lakes National Park, the prairies near Calgary (to the east and south), the parkland to the north and even the foothills & mountains to the west are Laycock’s muse. With a keen appreciate to the changes of light throughout the day and the changes in the seasons lends to an ever evolving and challenging subject that Laycock looks to capture on his canvas…an ever changing opportunity for growth, exploration and discovery to share.
preview: Thursday & Friday, November 12&13, 2020
Brent R. Laycock was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1947, received BFA and MFA degrees at Brigham Young University in Utah, and now lives in Calgary where they raised their five children.
His artwork has always been inspired by the diverse landscape of southern Alberta, continually seeking to express the spirit of the places he depicts. For most of Laycock’s career, he has worked in watercolor or in acrylic using a fluid, spontaneous style in which the paint is applied in bold direct strokes rather than conforming to a preliminary drawing. In his painting, communicating an emotional response is more important than detailed representation.
Laycock has held many solo exhibitions across Canada and in the USA and has participated in numerous juried group shows that have toured Canada, the USA , Mexico, Europe and Japan. He is a member of the Alberta Society of Artists, the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, the Society of Canadian Artists, and the Royal Canadian Academy of Art.
His work is represented in the collection of Canadian watercolours that was presented to Her Majesty’s Royal Collection at Windsor Castle in 1986. In 1991, the Albert Government presented one of his watercolors to Queen Margrethe of Denmark. He has received a variety of awards for acrylic and watercolour painting. In 2006, the Province of Alberta awarded Laycock the Alberta Centennial Medal for contribution in the arts.
The major commissioned work of Brent Laycock has a surprising contrast in scale. In 1982 and 1984, he was commissioned to do small paintings of Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park for Canada Post’s $1.50 and $1.00 stamps. He has produced large mural canvases for various institutions in Calgary, Lethbridge and Toronto and an outdoor historical mural in the Town of High River. He was commissioned to create a design for the large flat roof of the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. This art work, the size of half a football field, was designed to be viewed from tall buildings or aircraft.
His work is represented in the university collections of Brigham Young University, the University of Alberta, and in public collections such as Calgary’s Civic Collection, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Glenbow-Alberta Institute, and in many corporate collections. The book Waterton: Brush & Pen features over one hundred Laycock paintings of Waterton Lakes National Park accompanied by essays by renowned author, Fred Stenson. Other articles and reproductions of his work have appeared in many Canadian and international art magazines and books.