The Infatuation
with the North:
Haycock made at least one and often two or three trips
to the Arctic every year after retirement in 1965. His
love of the north seemed to increase with each trip.
Exhibitions were now held wherever he painted Yellowknife,
Whitehorse, Alert, Thule, and Eureka to name a few.
His work captured the feeling of the landscape. He was
able to depict form and movement with powerful brush
strokes. His paintings were and are immediately embraced
by all familiar with the subject area of the country.
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By the 1970's Haycock had become
fascinated with early exploration in the Arctic. When
he had originally gone north in 1926, he was actually
a part of those early explorations. Other countries
were mapping northern islands as well, and Canadian
sovereignty of the Arctic Archipelago depended on Canada
mapping and establishing RCMP outposts on the Arctic
Islands. Now, in his travels Haycock was seeing well
preserved cairns, remains of ships, dwellings, gravesites
and caches from those days and centuries earlier. There
were even remains of the early Denbigh Culture, ancestors
of the Inuit, who migrated from Russia over four thousand
years ago.
Haycock began a new quest. He desired
to paint the history of the North. He absorbed everything
he could about early settlement, the Search for the
Northwest Passage, and especially the Franklin Expedition
whose fate is still being unraveled. He acquired a large
library of documents and was instrumental in several
discoveries including the sunken barque Breadalbane
in 1980. He also put together a huge collection of his
own historical and geographical photographs, movies,
slides, videos, and audio recordings.
And he amassed a phenomenal collection
of paintings telling a story of early Inuit settlements,
white man's exploration, and vast powerful vistas of
land and sea.
Follow the links to read about the various chapters
of his life:
Youth
Introduction
to the North and to A.Y. Jackson Scientific
Career/ Musical Pursuits Early
Painting/The Call of the North The
Infatuation of the North An
Active Philanthropist Haycock's
Memory |