Sculptor, photographer, painter, musician, Bruce Baycroft moves to Australia next month after living in Prince George for 45 years. And he's moving for love.
Baycroft met Mary Kennedy, photographer, painter, teacher, online and after a couple of years in a long distance relationship, he's moving to Australia to live with his true love.
Before he leaves, he'll take us on a Sentimental Journey at Groop Gallery, 1127 Third Avenue, with opening reception Saturday at 7 p.m.
Best known locally for George the Mosquito and whimsical characters in clay, Baycroft shifts his focus to painting pastoral landscapes in oil with primary influences being pre-Group of Seven tonalist painters like Charles Eaton, Arthur Streeton and George Innes.
Baycroft's work expresses the romantic mood of B.C. and now the Australian landscape.
After purging many of his belongings in anticipation of his big move, Baycroft, who has his Bachelor of Fine arts from UBC, adds to the new adventure by focussing on his oil painting he began in earnest in 2004.
"I got inspired to return to painting by watching a television program about a painter," said Baycroft, who is also a bass player. "I wanted to focus on the old masters and their techniques and I did a series of paintings on the Mona Lisa. I did her hands, half of her face with a background and I did her eye. I sold the paintings right away so that was a start and I realized I can do this -- I can paint."
He is a project-oriented painter, he added.
"I don't just sit down and paint for pleasure," said Baycroft. "I like to have commissions or a goal or project so this show is like that. I'm actually busy right now touching up paintings that will be seen at the Groop Gallery show. There's going to be some wet paintings down there."
His painting is inspired by somber, romantic, pastoral landscapes, said Baycroft.
"This style of painting is very popular," he added. "That's what I like to do, I want people to have a piece of my art on their wall and enjoy it and that's my motivation. I am inspired by my photography. I don't go out in the field and paint. Often Mary and I will go traveling in Australia and I will just stick my camera out the window and I get surprising results that way. There's a couple of paintings in the show that are from photographs I took as a drive-by shooting kind of thing. There's some amazing landscape there and very different from here."
Google Bruce Baycroft and visit his blogspot and Flickr to see his work. Groop Gallery reception is a free event and Baycroft will say a few words to open his exhibit.
