A lifelong artist, benefactor and mentor, Lyall Nanson succumbed on March 1 to the cancer he had twice before valiantly battled and bettered.

A graduate of the Vancouver School of Art and the Art Centre School in Los Angeles, Nanson began his career in graphic arts on the design staff at Lovick Advertising. Moving on to helm Nanson & Dyer, he built one of the most respected graphics firms in Canada, which garnered numerous international awards for design and artwork excellence.

The Mohawk Gas Station logo is perhaps his most visible legacy from those days.

Probably best known for his meticulously researched and painstakingly accurate studies of Coastal canneries circa 1885-1920 (which until recently hung in the Royal BC Museum in Victoria), Nanson’s bold use of colour and design in his exuberant impressionist studies of regattas, tender watercolours of misty morning harbours, and subtle treatments of the road less traveled are eagerly sought by collectors.

The Nanson family began visiting the Sunshine Coast in the 1930’s, and after marrying his beloved Nancy in the 1950’s and raising their four children (Mike, John, Patti and David) Lyall returned to build a home in Halfmoon Bay. Initially he and Nan divided their time between the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver, where his graphics studio demanded his time and fine artwork was relegated to his “spare time.”

By the 1980’s, finding the siren call of the Coast – and his desire to paint full time –too strong to resist, he moved with Nan to a home not far from his brother George’s place in Grantham’s. There, as he demonstrated with typical humour in a cartoon invitation to his first show of work at his home studio, he was “painting his head off.”

George Cooper chronicled the success of this first show: 20 paintings sold and 16 commissions taken. His love of the water and wind, beaches and sailing and ability to capture nuances of light and movement in his paintings ensured his success.

As the Beachcombers TV series began to wind down, Lyall teamed up with a veteran cop and rookie artist named Ed Hill to create a commemorative painting of the cast. The original hangs at the CBC studio in Vancouver; a copy hangs in the Gibsons Municipal Hall. Ed Hill has since become a remarkable artist in his own right (profiled in the December issue of Going Coastal Arts Newsletter).

Hill noted that “Lyall painted beaches and water and coastal scenes because that’s where he found love, energy and inspiration. His works and his stories they tell will continue to be loved long into the future. That’s how he wants to be remembered. That’s how he will be remembered.”

A founding member of the Sunshine Coast Arts Cooperative (which operates the Landing Gallery in Gibsons), Nanson literally built the gallery from the ground up. As Jan DeGrass noted in the Coast Reporter (“The little gallery that could,” 2003) “with help, he tore out walls, upgraded wiring, painted and redesigned the former real estate office until it was fit to be seen.” Thousands of visitors see this gallery each year, and it has established a loyal clientele. Its success drew success, and now the six galleries located in Gibson’s Landing have created a hub of artistic ferment and excitement.

One of the reasons for its success, as Ed Hill pointed out, was the rigorous standard Lyall set when jurying submissions for display. His extensive formal training in fine arts, standing as a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, and background as a graphic artist all came into play when judging a work. “It’s crap!” he’d say.

“And then,” Ed Hill noted, “he’d tell us why it was crap. It really was an education for all of us to have him on the jury.” Nanson also mentored his fellow co-op members in the fine art of display – resulting in an open, breezy and welcoming gallery that regularly draws repeat visitors from off-Coast.

At Lyall Nanson’s funeral on Thursday, March 3, friends, family and virtually every artist in Gibsons packed St. Bartholomew’s Church for a service that juxtaposed laughter and warm reminiscence with poignant hymns and the 23rd Psalm (“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil…”). This Psalm, Lyall’s favourite according to Rev. Gary Hamblin, was particularly moving in the context of Nanson’s life and death. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow him all the days of his life, and he shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.