Coaldale artist shares lifelong passion for paint and sculpture

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on August 12, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Vincent Luykenaar looks at some of the art he has created that hangs on walls in his Coaldale basement.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Art has been part of Vincent Luykenaar’s life all his life. The retired Coaldale physician and active artist was named after Dutch master Vincent Van Gogh; an older brother was named Theo, which was also the moniker of the painter’s older sibling who kept Vincent Van Gogh alive.

The 74-year-old Luykenaar had an interest in art from his earliest days and began drawing in his youth.

At his Coaldale home, a treed and beautifully landscaped oasis in the heart of the prairie, Luykenaar at the age of 74 continues to keep busy after retiring from his medical practise at the Campbell Clinic three years ago.

A sculptor and painter, Luykenaar developed a talent for working in bronze with legendary Coaldale artist Cornelius “Corne” Martens, creating works of art in a backyard foundry he and wife Mirjam built.

His talents as an artist and physician have been passed down to a second generation with son Richard also a sculptor and both of them doctors, Richard a psychologist here in Lethbridge and Kevin a family physician in Airdrie.

Luykenaar paints every day at his home which also houses a studio called Desert Spring Bronze Art Gallery. Works by the artist as well as son Richard, Joseph Anderson and Judith Nickol – who Luykenaar calls the best watercolourist in the area – fill the space which was once a double garage.

His paintings and bronze sculptures can also be found hanging or displayed in other parts of the home, as well.

Born in Soestdjik, Holland in 1947, Luykenaar graduated high school from The Hague and studied medicine at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. His father was in the army so the family moved often and he went to three different high schools. The family even lived in Indonesia for two years.

He spent eight years with the Royal Dutch Navy as a medical officer and came to Canada after the table was set for a new path in his life’s journey. He entertained Canadian medical staff from a warship when he was stationed in Curacao, where he and his family spent three years, with Luykenaar serving as Command Surgeon of the Royal Marines.

He was told of a shortage of medical staff in the Canadian Armed Forces and soon after applying to come to Canada, found himself stationed in Cold Lake, Alta. as a flight surgeon with the Royal Canadian Airforce with the rank of major.

After applying for physician jobs in various communities such as Cardston, Magrath, Pincher Creek and the Crowsnest Pass, Luykenaar landed in Coaldale in 1985 with his family of wife Mirjam and sons Kevin and Richard where he worked until retiring in 2019.

His main medical interests as a physician were mental health, geriatrics and minor surgery and he had the opportunity to admit his own patients for many years to the Lethbridge hospital.

He had befriended Martens in 1987 and was introduced to sculpting and bronze casting. He and Mirjam built a foundry in their yard and both did casting for many years.

As a painter, Luykenaar started with watercolour but moved into oils and acrylics.

Walls of his house are filled with paintings he’s made from photographs shot in locations around the world where he and Mirjam have travelled over the years.

Luykenaar says he would recommend a family practice to any young doctor but with a smile he says “retirement is the best.”

As an artist, he began drawing and painting in his teens. He did an oil painting course in Cold Lake but for many years focused on watercolour, a medium which is unforgiving with mistakes. Now he paints mainly with oil.

Luykenaar developed a strong friendship with Martens and his wife Barb, saying Martens “played an important role in my life and he got me into sculpting as well.”

When bronze casting became too physically demanding, he and his wife “removed the oven and the furnace” and made that space into a studio, one in which his grandchildren can be found doing their own art, as well.

Because of his exposure to art, youngest son Richard got a fine arts degree at the University of Lethbridge and became a proficient sculptor in his own right, said Luykenaar, adding all the bronzes in the gallery were created by Richard, who now has a psychology practise in Lethbridge. Son Kevin is a family doctor in Airdrie.

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