Allan Laycock self-portrait. Image: see artist’s website, below.
The artist, Allan Bracewell Laycock, (1928-2020) was born at Sutton-in-Craven, North Yorkshire, just outside the Bradford District boundary. However, he had strong early professional association and connections with the Keighley area of the district. He trained as a graphic artist, but is best remembered for his subtle-coloured landscape paintings.
After leaving school Allan studied art between 1944-46 at Keighley School of Art. His talent was recognised early, and in 1945 was chosen, with another art student, to paint mural panels celebrating post-war re-building in the town that were publicly displayed in Keighley Town Hall Square.
In 1946, National Service interrupted his studies, but he returned to Keighley School of Art in 1948 for an additional year to gain the National Diploma in Design. He then attended Sheffield College of Art, 1949-50, where he gained an Art Teacher’s Diploma.
After leaving college Allan continued to live initially n the Keighley area and is recorded as having exhibited a painting at the Fourth Annual Exhibition of Paintings of Yorkshire Dales at the Keighley Museum, Victoria Park, in 1952. The Bradford Observer noted: “Freshness as well as firmness is shown in a little work, ‘Malham’, by Allan Laycock .” (05/07/1952).
Moving from Keighley, he married Mollie White from Norwich and worked for advertising agencies and design groups in Norwich and London, and overseas at Wellington, New Zealand.
‘Lothersdale’. Image: see artist’s website, below.
In addition to his paid employment, over the years he successfully developed his own artwork, primarily as a landscape artist, painting outdoors on location, and using acrylics as a watercolour medium. During his residence locally he was a member of the Keighley Art Club, and later became a member of the Norwich Art Circle and the Norwich Twenty Group.
Coloured Fields. Image: Fosseway Artists
In 1974, he was appointed Lecturer in Graphic Design at Gloucester College of Art and Design and lived at Hartbury in Gloucestershire until his death. He was an active member of the Cotswold Fosseway Artists Group and his paintings were regularly exhibited at Group shows, and elsewhere.
His landscape studies depicted Yorkshire, as well as scenes from across the West Country, the Cotswolds, Scotland, and Wales. Overseas, his paintings have included landscapes in Crete, Iceland, New Zealand and Croatia.
His artwork can be found in private collections in Britain, and overseas in Finland, Germany, Canada, the USA, Alaska, Denmark, Australia and South Africa.
Malham Tarn. Image: see artist’s website, below.
He was an Emeritus Academician at the Royal West of England Academy, and also served on the Council of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours.