About

Leane Harasymchuk, Artist

Sketching has been my compass and field guide to the places around me. Spending time in the landscape with pen and paint has helped me appreciate the layers of story that make up the familiar scenes of life.

Each composition begins with the larger subject in mind but reveals itself in the context of details: in the play of shadows, the plants growing there, benches and fence posts, stone and brick, signage, paint and rust, power lines, and everyday objects.

Linework is my comfort zone and watercolour is a bit of a wild animal, which creates tension between control and playfulness. This serves to balance objective attention to detail with the emotional feeling and nuance of a place. I’m interested in character; having a conversation and seeing the gradual animation of the sketch as it takes shape.

I am inspired by a lineage of sketchbook aficionados: rural & urban sketchers, reportage artists, and naturalists (as my bookshelves will attest) – Alex Colville, Emily Carr, John Muir Laws, Clare Walker Leslie, and Ian Fennelly, to name just a few!

I’ve lived in several places throughout the province of Saskatchewan, growing up between small town, city, and farm. My family and I now call the rural Parklands home.