I have always been interested in art

Story and artwork from Tony Polyck

My name is Tony Polyck and I am now 75 and was born in England and came to Canada when I was 8 years old. My Dad was in the military and we lived all over Canada. I have lived and worked in every province except Manitoba and Saskatchewan but spent most of my working life in Yukon (40 years). I had a dream job in federal water management and spent most of my working life in the great outdoors, travelling by 4x4 truck, planes, helicopters and boats all over Yukon in all types of weather and conditions. I now live in Vancouver and usually spend winters in Mexico.

I have always been interested in art and I took up watercolour after I retired. My wife and I have toured all over Europe and Mexico, hitting every art museum we could. I grew up sketching and winning a few art contests, as well as getting the strap a few times for drawing caricatures of some of my teachers. My wife and I have toured all over Europe and Mexico, visiting every significant art museum we could find. I took up watercolour seriously after I retired and I became entranced with the challenges of painting in watercolour after someone told me how difficult it was to paint in the medium.

My painting challenges are basically the same as most artists…selecting an appropriate subject and sitting down and painting without distraction. I don't like painting pretty pictures and tend to be a bit edgy in choice of subject. For instance, I did a painting sitting in a downtown alley on a cold windy day, with homeless street people hanging around checking me out as they searched garbage bins.

What do I want to learn? More about painting people, colour theory and colour mixing. I do follow a selection of artists on Youtube who are knowledgable, too many to list here.

I have been following Watercolor Academy for awhile for useful tips and find it very sophisticated and helpful.

As far as why I want to win a course, why not? I think it would help me a lot. You can always learn something from another artist.

People should vote for me because I am a nice guy living on a fixed retirement income who is passionate about painting and art.

The painting I am submitting is based upon a documentary film on the wild horses of Sable Island, off the east coast of Canada. As soon as I saw the film, I was inspired to paint them. They are completely wild and left by the government to fend for themselves.

I hope people like it!

Cheers,
Tony

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