Gena LaCoste - Watercolour Artist - Cowboy Art Western Art

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Gena LaCoste

Canadian Artist Gena LaCoste

Biography

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.

Sunday Morning in Santa Fe - By Alberta Artist Gena LaCoste

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!

"A Brush With Life"
courtesy of Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine

To see more of Gena´s watercolour artwork, please go to her website at www.genalacoste.com.
You can also contact Gena directly through email.

Click on a picture for a larger image and ordering information

Gena LaCoste
#18 Ross Heights Place., SE
Medicine Hat, Alberta Canada T1B 2E5

Phone: (403) 527-0650

E-mail: gena03@telusplanet.net Website: www.genalacoste.com

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