Rutland, #12, Sept 25, 1985, gouache on card, 18" x 15" signed by Jack Akroyd. Last art from his estate. Unframed. $200 on sale for $100. Pick up only.

Jack Akroyd (1921-1996) was a member of a group of artists living in Vancouver in the early 60s which included sculptors Paul Huba, Elek Imredy and David Marshall, photographer Jack Dale and painters George Fertig and Frank Molnar. Akroyd’s characteristic blend of figurative detail and surreal composition found admirers in Canada as well as Japan, where he capped his career with three sell-out shows in 1987.

Born in Halifax, Yorkshire, Akroyd was raised in Swindon, in the south of England. As a child, he was passionate about Scouting and camping in the Cotswolds countryside. Leaving school at sixteen, he became an engineering apprentice, followed by five years’ war service in the RAF, two of them in Canada, which inspired him to immigrate in 1948. He spent four years at the Ontario College of Art, studying under Carl Schaefer and Jock Macdonald, alongside fellow students Graham Coughtry, Shizuye Takashima and William Kurelek. After graduating in 1953, he moved west, living in Nanaimo and then Kitsilano’s Yew Street artist enclave. He pursued his art while supporting himself first as a draftsman, then by fixing kilns for local schools and potters. Later he was an assistant to sculptors George Norris and Elek Imredy.

In 1960 Jack made the first of two long journeys through Japan, which proved life-changing, emotionally—through an ill-fated love affair—and artistically—by his deep affinity for Japanese culture. Japan profoundly affected his perspective and iconography, and he developed his signature style, a visual diary, combining images of his daily life and his inner world in witty juxtaposition.

From 1967 onwards, Akroyd and Frank Molnar made annual sketching trips to the Okanagan and the West Coast, producing landscapes that sold well at Artists West gallery in Ottawa. Vancouver Art Gallery and Burnaby Art Gallery also honoured Akroyd with solo exhibitions. In 1996, age 75, he died on a city bus.

The Life and Art of Jack Akroyd by Peter Busby, published by Mother Tongue Publishing, full colour biography. $35.