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* Biography
* Gallery I *
Gallery II *
Gallery III * Art Cards/Prints * Links * Site Map * Contact Gena
Gena LaCoste #18 Ross Heights Place SE Medicine Hat, Alberta Canada T1B 2E5 403 527-0650 Email: gena03@telusplanet.net Gena LaCoste © 2004-2006 All image on this site subject to copyright Site design - Red Hawk Communications |
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 quest to improve her art has been part of her world view ever
since. Gena started her artistic training sitting in a school art
room, on Friday afternoons. "Entertaining my classmates with cartoons
of the teachers was the best part of the week." That changed as she
began to see the agricultural lifestyle sliding away in the dry grassland
winds. Her
task became to capture what she had known and loved, to record a way
of life - branding, bringing in the herds, families working side by
side. Using vibrant, strong colours that evoke the motion and essence
of herds, dust swirls, the bunching of horse muscles, Gena's art pulls
the viewer in and evokes memories. Gena sees her art style as representational. "I love it when the picture I have in my mind comes out as a painting,
not like a photograph." Yet, birds framed against stormy skies or
strutting across farmyards seem as if they will come off the page.
Flowers in Santa Fe, roosters in Canada - her art brings them to life.
On a painting day, you may find her painting on location, or in her
studio. In a home filled with art of others and special western style
furnishings, the north light flows into the studio and accents the
hues that parade over the canvasses and pages. "On a painting day,
I just show up for work. Stretching and preparing paper begins the
process." Her goal is to complete at least two or three paintings
per week. Painting for thirty hours per week keeps her days very full.
Teaching once a week at Medicine Hat College keeps her own art skills
growing. "I wouldn't see the way I do if I didn't paint. Other artists
help me to see a positive view of life. I need that support. I love
to give it back to others."
To
this challenging schedule, she adds in part-time work, riding her
mare Polly, family events, hanging paintings and keeping up with market
contacts. With over three hundred paintings in the last two and a
half years, her body of completed work grows daily. Gena's first art
sales were pastels of First Nations children in the Bassano region
where she was born and grew up. A variety of workshops, artist residencies
and use of a wide span of media have all contributed to her art today.
Oils, acrylics and pastels gave way to her fascination with the organic
appearance of water and colour.
Her
current portraits show an experienced artist who has mastered drawing.
Her work appears at poetry gatherings, horse shows and stampedes.
Private shows have ranged from galleries in New Mexico to Western
Canada. Her latest art shows include the Medicine Hat Cultural Centre,
the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery. Collectors from Great Britain,
to the southwest corner of the United States, and Canadians from British
Columbia to Ontario have purchased her originals and prints. The Alberta
Foundation for the Arts has some of her originals in their collection.
Standing with Gena, looking at her most recent paintings of the Calgary
Stampede bucking horse herd at Hanna, it's easy to see why. I'm awed
at the motion, the colour and the flow of lines. A Gena LaCoste original
is a delight. Her painting is full of life - prairie life!