| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | O.N. (Rick) Grandmaison was the son of First Nations portrait painter, Nicholas de Grandmaison. Rick was known for his impressionistic oil paintings of the western landscape. The changing light and colour of southern Alberta figured prominently in his depictions of its ranchlands and ranged from almost pure abstractions of land and sky to more pastoral ranch scenes with cowboys. Deeply attached to the history of the Old West, Grandmaison is also noted for a series of 17 paintings of historic ranches including those of the ‘Big Four’: the 1912 founders of The Calgary Stampede. His atmospheric pastel-coloured sky paintings were especially prized as were his nocturnes. There are also many mountain works in his oeuvre.
Grandmaison trained at the Banff School of Fine Arts (with Frederick B. Taylor), Winnipeg School of Art, Chelsea School of Art, London, England (with Pickforth and Hodgson) and later with his father. As the son of a well-known artist, Grandmaison was able to distinguish himself artistically with a style that incorporated visible brush strokes and an expressive approach to the many moods of his subject matter. During the course of his career, he exhibited in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. His work is included in the Glenbow Museum, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Art Gallery of Alberta and many private and corporate collections across Canada. |