Lawrence Nickle - A Painter of Canada!

A very good friend and great artist, Lawrence Nickle passed away on January 3rd, 2014. Not enough Canadians knew his art. That is a shame. Those who knew his art, know their value and how they enriched our society.
Lawrence's art was spirited and honest. He had a style reserved for his plein air painting and one reserved for his studio work. Deep layers of paint were piled on top on each other in the studio. I asked him why? He said he didn't get the colour right the first time and he kept laying paint on until he did. I have and treasure one of those layered paintings.
I spent more than just a few nights on his flop down bed and enjoyed his generous hospitality and back yard salads. After a day of plein air art our conversations touched on virtually everything and we (mainly Lawrence) solved most of the world's problems if only someone would listen. He had a deep philosophical understanding of the world. I had hoped to paint again with Lawrence in the spring before the bugs emerged but those days are gone.
Lawrence liked my analyses of the weather and lamented that the Group of Seven painted clouds "like they were boulders in the sky". Lawrence depicted brilliant skies and listened patiently while I applied "Creative Scene Investigation" (CSI) to uncover the weather he painted them under.
I have many more "Lawrence stories" but you get the idea. Lawrence will be missed...