Roy Hickling is a seventh generation farmer who along with wife Sue, and
daughter Lydia, lives on a family farm just north of Barrie. He attended
the University of Guelph and after completing a Bachelor of Science
degree in Agriculture, with honours in 1980, he came home to full time
beef farming. The farm shifted to cash cropping in 1991 and although Roy
recently retired after nineteen years of selling seed, he continues to
farm.
Roy’s interest in the arts has evolved through his association with the
MacLaren Art Centre where he curated MacLaren Against the Grain: The
Fafard Field Project in 1997. It combined his expertise in agriculture
and his interest in art in a very successful project that received
national media attention and critical acclaim and was also the impetus
for Roy to begin showing his own work. He has exhibited regularly since
2000 in both public and private galleries and his work can be found at
the Mad & Noisy Gallery in Creemore, Ridge West Oro Medonte, at Life’s Inspirations Art
Gallery in Hanover and at his studio at the Double Doors Studios and
Gallery, Anten Mills.
While Roy has been
playing guitar and song writing for over thirty years, the last
decade has seen a renewed interest and commitment to his music. He
has been performing locally including at the 2006 Barrie Folk: Roots
Music Festival and has recently released his debut CD a little
time.
