Though not a new face at Canada House Gallery, painter Grant Leier’s latest show will be of work entirely different from what he’s done in the past.
“It’s a brand-new series of work I’ve been working on since November – it’s large scale, very colourful paintings of animals indigenous to Banff, and they’re a riot,” said Leier.
“The series is really exciting for me because I’m using a lot of new technique with the animal imagery that I’ve never done before and I’m pretty excited about it,” he explained. “On a lot of the paintings I’m glazing them with watered-down acrylic and then combing the entire canvas with large rubber combs to create texture and pattern and it gives a whole other dimension to the image – that’s the main technique for me that’s new.”
Currently based in Nanaimo, B.C. with his family, Leier developed this technique with his wife, fellow artist Nixie Barton.
“(Nixie) is also an artist and she and I just sort of came up with this technique,” he said. “I’ve used small combs before, but because I was working on such large pieces, I wanted to reinvent that on a bigger scale, and eventually used squeegees cut into different patterns, and that’s what we used for the combs.
“Before this it was just the straight application of the acrylic with no pattern glazing. There was glazing, but none with the texture and the combing going through it. This has dramatically altered the look of the piece.”
Leier is originally from Saskatchewan and has also spent much time in Alberta.
“I was born in Lloydminster, I went to Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary,” he said. “Then I worked at the Calgary Zoo for five years, doing their graphic design and advertising – was trained as a technical artist to do graphics and stuff – and then after a few forays into trying to support myself as a painter, I’ve just been doing painting ever since.
“I used to be more of an illustrator, but I’m much more of a painter right now. It’s exciting work, you get to be your own boss, and I love painting – I feel very fortunate that I’m able to make a living doing it. It’s just what I always wanted to do.”
Leier’s been showing his work at Canada House Gallery for at least 20 years, he said.
“They must have seen my work somewhere and approached me – they’re a great bunch of people to work with,” he said. “I’ve been painting full-time for 35 years and I just end up working with people I respect and I really admire how they run their gallery, and the fact that they’re good business people too.
“I was there at the end of November for their Joy show and it was so beautiful – there was a lot of snow and it was very pretty.”
Last June, Barb Pelham, the galley’s owner, invited Leier to participate in an exhibition focusing on bears which got the ball rolling on his interest in this subject matter.
“I had done some paintings of bears years ago for another show, and never continued other than that particular show, and then after the show this year I was really inspired by animal imagery,” he said. “It was a really nice change from the romance series I had been doing for years and years, and I just kept working with it.
“To take this expected animal imagery and give it a real twist with design and colour, it’s a hoot, I love doing it.
“Even though the content is an animal exhibition, it’s much more than that, just because of the approach to painting them. I’m not going for realism or any kind of an accurate depiction of the animal, I’m going to capture the essence of the animal in a much more artier way.”
The content for this show – which includes an array of animals found in the Rocky Mountain region – is largely based on imagery from old publications, explained Leier.
“Most of them I sourced from books and magazines, the older the better,” he said. “I managed to find a number of publications from the ’40s and ’50s that have old black and white photos. There’s one book I use from the ’30s that talks about the wildlife from Banff and Jasper national parks.
“The show will be a lot of mountain goats, sheep, owls, Canada geese; but predominantly it’s bears, elk, deer, wolf. My approach is more about colour than anything.”
For more information on Leier, visit his website at bartonandleiergallery.com
