Gena Lacoste
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.”
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!