Painter awestruck with nature

Artist flies solo in new gallery show

Keith Hiscock can’t sit still. He jumps up from a bench in Morris Gallery, where he’s talking about his upcoming exhibit.

He brushes his hand over a canvas, a landscape with billowing clouds.

“See some of these soft edges? This blending is really hard to do in acrylic. Oil has a different feel to it. With oils, it’s like working with butter.”

After a lifetime of working in watercolours and acrylics, Hiscock has spent the last seven years learning oils. He likes the medium for its flexibility and its speed.

“Acrylic is labour intensive and requires more than one coat. It would take a few weeks to three months to paint a picture,” he said.

Born and raised in Victoria and best known for his West Coast limited edition prints, Hiscock opens his first solo exhibit in 10 years on Nov. 12. Featured among the 50 or so works to be hung at Morris Gallery will be such familiar scenes as boulders at Mt. Doug Park, Metchosin barns and Cobble Hill fields.

Self-taught, Hiscock said he paints from a sense of awe, a respect for those overlooked spaces like the area on a beach between land and water. “It’s almost a separate world.”

By 17, he knew he wanted to make painting his life and he hasn’t held a salaried job since he was 23. At first he thought abstract was the way to go. Then he travelled to Montreal and took in a realist exhibit. He came back to Victoria and studied, discovering Andrew Wyeth.

Now in his 50s and unmarried, he lives in Saanich and has three daughters, none of whom have followed his path.

Hiscock goes out with a group to paint every Friday. Although he used to work from photographs, he now works from en plein air sketches and sometimes photos. But even with photos, such as a “boring” farmyard scene, he adds details where needed to balance the work.

“I do get physically tired and the fumes can get to you,” he said. He doesn’t adhere to any kind of work schedule. “Sometimes it’s two hours, sometimes not at all, sometimes all day.”

Oil on Canvas, recent studio and en plein air works by Keith Hiscock, runs from Nov. 12 to Dec. 5 at Morris Gallery, 428 Burnside Rd. E. (at Alpha St.). The opening reception runs from 7 to 9 p.m. with the artist in attendance.

vmoreau@saanichnews.com

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