Grant Leier
Born in Lloydminister, Alberta, in 1956, Grant studied at the Alberta College of Art, Calgary, Alberta from 1974-78 and then attended the Illustrators Workshop, New York, in 1978. Leier creates intense colour, pattern, and a sense of celebration. He once compared himself to a crow who collects the most beautiful and colourful objects it could find. His quick wit and quirky sense of humour combine to do works that thrill and excite the viewer. Viewers are drawn in by his bold colours, and Leier's excellent attention holds their attention to detail. His paintings can now be found in private and corporate collections across the country.
"I grew up on the prairies of Western Canada, a rather sparse environment with little colour during the long winter months. The landscape was open and severe, the sky enormous… Here on Vancouver Island, we are enveloped in a comparative lushness year-round, and the environment tends to swallow you up in its greenness; the sky almost disappears, everything is growing all the time. I am fond of both places, yet I've never been interested in painting the landscape. I feel a need to inject intense colour, pattern, and a sense of celebration into everything I paint. I want the ordinary to be exotic, the black dog to be red, the pears to be blue. My focus has been colour, people, animals and… still life. More than anything, I want my images to evoke a sense of well-being and goodness… I believe that documenting social and political concerns in the visual arts is important, but I feel it is equally important to pursue the creation of work that simply makes you feel good."
