Posts Tagged ‘Watercolour’
Sandhills Cow Still Life On display at the Prickly Pear Gallery - Medicine Hat, AB
Gena LaCoste is a local Medicine Hat artist with a lot of “pull” around town in the art community. I personally see her work in many places in town and also see her participating in pretty much every art event happening in the city, and sometimes even some trade shows/markets. She definitely is one of the biggest names in Medicine Hat, especially for her stylistically vivid and colorful large format watercolor paintings. She tends to deal with subjects ranging from horses, floral themes, to other prairie life depictions – what she knows and has lived.
Her website is full of her artwork with three separate galleries packed with tons of her paintings over the years, listing the names, the price (if they are for sale), and even where they currently are showcased. The site also contains a sizable biography on Gena, here’s a snippet:
Gena LaCoste paints what she loves. Gena has loved the grasslands from her first breath. She learned about the land and its unique ecosystems from her family, and this love has equipped her to paint the authentic lifestyles of prairie families. Now, Gena paints what she loves. “I was painting and drawing by the time I was three years of age,” Gena recalls. “My early memories include the river at the cow camps, and the sounds of water sliding past. Dust, heat rising, the arid smells of sage brush, and the tones of light begged to be painted.” Riding on her own horse to the cow camp with her father, for instance, etched images in her heart that she tries to record through colours and water. “I remember trying to find a way to draw a horse so that it looked like the ones in front of me.”
The Hat Art Club (also known as the Medicine Hat Art Club) is a non-profit organization for artists in the city. It is also known to most as “what the Cultural Centre by the Medicine Hat College is used for”. Like I stated, the club’s main residence is in the Cultural Centre’s various studios and features many programs including classes and workshops to the public. Unfortunately I have posted this a little late in the game as most of the classes are ending this year until September but I may post an update later when they begin again.
The mandate of the club is to promote awareness of the various media of visual art and to encourage personal development and growth. The membership costs $100 a year but considering membership gets you studio space and access to things like a printing press, easels, drawing tables, etc. it’s well worth it even without doing any of the classes. Continue reading for the full list of both programs and benefits: