John Janzen loves to surprise people.

At 56, after launching his first show in Gallery 3 at the Jasper Artist Guild, he is doing just that.

“I had a friend come up to me and said I’m a dark horse. He’s known me for 35 years, and didn’t know I paint,” Janzen said.

An engineer with CN, Janzen has only come into painting of late. A talented artist in high school, he said he hasn’t been able to dedicate enough time to art until recently. Instead, he chose construction as his outlet for creative expression before returning to brush and canvas.

“It’s always been there, but it’s been untapped. I’ve done lots of building, so I’m not afraid of installations,” he joked.

For his first show, Janzen has turned to watercolour landscapes. He worked on many of them during the past year after upgrading his skills through several workshops.

Much of landscape painting explores playing with light, and Janzen has a method for capturing his desired shade.

“I drive around in the part of the day that’s dead for light and I paint until the light becomes more interesting. When it does, in that 20 minutes, I put the shadows in,” Janzen said.

The moody mountains allow for so many lighting possibilities, he said, which is reflected in his choice of subject matter – Old Man Mountain, Tekarra, Mount Brussels (and one Banff usurper from Moraine Lake). While he ultimately wants to move beyond painting mountains, he feels it’s something he has to master, while improving his painting techniques with watercolours.

“Watercolour is a lot more complex than other painting. You get an immediate education in mixing colours. You can lift and change them – those are things you can’t do with acrylics... and oils are time consuming. If you’re going to learn to paint properly, watercolour is more immediate,” Janzen said.

He now finds himself moving to watercolour ink, which is a tricky transition, he said. Ultimately, he’d like to become more of a conceptual artist – something he hints at with three pieces in the JAG Upcycle show. Those pieces are comments on habitat loss, crass, unnecessary packaging and the accumulation of junk.

“Those pieces are plain fun. They’re crucial exercises,” he said.

Having already sold two pieces, Janzen said there’s another message behind his show. He said it’s a starting point, but also something more.

“I wanted to convey that anybody can set out to do something and have a modicum of success. I’m 56 years old and not afraid to try something new,” Janzen said.

But that doesn’t mean there should be a green light for public showings of all artists.

“You see so many people push out crappy art. If you don’t have something worth sharing, you should keep it to yourself,” Janzen said. “Every painting has to evoke a feeling or tell a story.

Janzen’s show runs until the end of January.