Even before becoming a teenager, SPC LaRocque recognized his growing passion for art and became dedicated to perfecting his craft. Starting with drawing and eventually transitioning to painting, he spent years developing himself as an artist.
“I’ve always had an interest in making art,” said SPC LaRocque. “When I was very young, I could draw fairly well representationally [a form of art where the artist depicts objects, figures or scenes as seen by the naked eye]. It all started with drawing, and I slowly got better. I really immersed myself and took a greater interest in art when I was in high school.”
It was in high school when SPC LaRocque encountered an inspirational teacher, and eventually mentor, who introduced him to watercolors.
“It was love at first sight when it came to watercolors,” he said. “I felt an immediate connection to the material. It resonated with me.”
Watercolors is a form of painting that uses the technique of mixing paint with water to produce paler colors – resulting in a different effect than lightening colors by adding white paint. It is a very demanding style of art, where the thinner paint can reveal even the smallest error made on the canvas. In this form, white paint is not used at all; rather, the whites in the image are the canvas itself. Consequently, once a mistake is made, there is no removing it. SFC LaRocque said the thrill of the immediacy of watercolors is what attracted him to the art form.
“There is a certain liveliness to it that I enjoy,” he explained. “I really enjoy how I can add several different layers of color to a piece at once. I do enjoy working with other media, but I work mostly with watercolor.
“Sometimes I add markers or other nontraditional media into the mix just to try something new. There is no set rule that I must work with watercolor or oil or graphite. Some rules are there, but I think rules are meant to be broken when it comes to art.”
