Pickard writes exciting, colorful and accessible music without "writing down" to his audiences. His language is always tonal, drawing from a wide variety of composers but never sounding eclectic or unoriginal. If I were to name one composer whom Pickard's style is closest to I would suggest Kalevi Aho, but Pickard's music is generally more accessible and has more surface glitter (not that that is a bad thing). I really enjoy his music and I'm sure you will too! Perhaps these MusicWeb reviews of the two BIS discs (which I strongly recommend) will give you a better idea of his style:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=187727 (couldn't find the review on the MusicWeb website for some reason)
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Aug13/Pickard_Tenebrae_BISCD1873.htm :)