Waterton: Brush & Pen
Paintings by Brent R. Laycock
Prose by Fred Stenson

Published by Fifth House Ltd.
A Fitzhenry & Whiteside Company
1-800-387-9776

Size: 9 x 8.5 in. 144 pages, hardcover, 107 colour paintings
$34.95 (Can) $26.95 (US)

Available now at book retailers across Canada and online.

Waterton: Brush & Pen brings the work of artist Brent Laycock and author Fred Stenson together in a celebration of Waterton Lakes National Park.

Laycock’s and Stenson’s works in this book were formed by independent experience of the same landscape—the harmonies between them are for readers to discover. More than an art book, a travel book, or a history book, Waterton: Brush and Pen takes readers on an inspiring journey to a hidden paradise.

Over the years, Brent Laycock has painted hundreds of watercolour and acrylic paintings of Waterton and the wild ranch country that stands before the park’s entrance. In his fluid style, evident in the reproductions included in Waterton: Brush & Pen, Laycock
captures the quiet coulees and prairie panoramas of the foothills to the forest havens, alpine meadows, soaring peaks, and wind-whipped water of Waterton Lakes National Park.

Accompanying Laycock’s paintings are fourteen essays by Fred Stenson, recounting his personal experience of the Waterton area along with reflections on the history and geography of this spectacular, out-of-the-way place.The central theme of his essays
is the inescapable influence Waterton exerts on the life and dreams of the people who dwell in its shadow.

Brent R. Laycock was born in 1947 in Lethbridge, Alberta. He is a member of the Alberta Society of Artists, the Canadian Society of Painters, the Society of Canadian Artists, and was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art. Brent’s works are represented in many important corporate, university, and private collections, and reproductions of his work have appeared in Canadian and international art magazines and books. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife, Kathy.

Fred Stenson was raised on a farm and cattle ranch between Pincher Creek and Waterton Lakes National Park. He has written thirteen award-winning books, scripts for over 130 films and videos, and countless magazine articles. Fred is the director of the Wired Writing Studio at The Banff Centre and has been president of the Writers Guild of Alberta and on the council of the Writers Union of Canada. He lives in Cochrane, Alberta, with his wife, author and educator Pamela Banting.

Reactions to the book

An exceptional artist who shows his love for the Alberta landscape with magnificent images, Brent Laycock captures the unique beauty of the open prairie and the mountain landscape with a stunning array of paintings and drawings.
Diane Rosenthal, Director, Hollander York Gallery,Toronto, Ontario

Brent’s watercolours are full of the movement and sparkle of southern Alberta and are a perfect partner to Fred Stenson’s essays. Lyrical and assured, funny and frank, Fred’s words capture Waterton’s character in Polaroid clarity.
From the Foreword by Lisa Christensen,
Curator of Art, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Alberta

Even a cursory glance at Brent Laycock’s impressive body of work reveals an authoritative control of the water-based medium. His brushwork is bold and intuitive, and there is a sense of lyricism and poetry in the interpretation of his subjects. Especially in this Waterton Park series we can see Brent’s spontaneity and sureness of hand in combination with his ability to distil and transform landscape motifs into refined aesthetic
visualizations.
Jacek Malek, Director/Curator,
Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary, Alberta