Early Painting:

By 1935 Haycock had begun to experiment with oil painting. His first subjects were photographs he had taken in the Arctic. He moved outside in 1937, painting in watercolours with Wilfred Flood, then later in pastels with Frank Hennessey. He belonged to a loose group of “Sunday Painters” including Flood, Hennessey, Tom Wood, Henri Masson, Tony Rice, Pat Cowley-Brown and other visiting painters such as Andre Bieler, Carl Schaeffer, Randolph Hewton, Charles Comfort and Fred Varley (who was also a pianist).

In 1941 he called on A.Y. Jackson at the Studio Building in Toronto. As the two soon became close friends and painting partners Haycock returned to oils. For over 25 years they traveled throughout Canada on many enjoyable sketching trips to Quebec, Algoma, the Barrenlands, and the Yukon, until A.Y.’s death in 1974. Haycock also painted with Ralph Burton, and in the 1980's, Charlie Spratt, Grant Tigner, and Leo Mol (the sculptor). The backs of some of Haycock’s paintings are full of information, often noting a piece of history or anecdote about the subject, with whom he was painting on that occasion and who had commissioned a larger canvas.

The Call of the North:

Haycock was a leading mineralogical expert in mining investigations into the identification of ores. Fieldwork frequently took him the Yukon and NWT - collecting samples (often spending days underground) preparing and analysing specimens for research and for trial evidence, and sometimes presenting testimony at trials. During these trips he would book his holidays, arranging to meet A.Y.Jackson for camping trips in to Great Bear Lake and the Barrenlands, and the Yukon. Some of his most exciting and vibrant Arctic paintings are from this period.