Indigenous Artist Study

Choose one of the following artists and recreate their work. Ensure you choose an appropriate medium.

Ted Harrison
Ted Harrison is one of Canada’s most popular artists. His love
of the land and people of the Yukon has brought him national
acclaim. His distinctive style of painting is both colourful and
sophisticated yet
retains an innocent
charm and appeals to
young and old alike.

Christi Belcourt
Metis artist, Christi Belcourt, featured on the cover of the December
2015 issue of Canadian Geographic, is one such artist. Belcourt’s
acrylic paintings, based on beading traditions and floral patterns,
captured the eye of no less than haute-couture fashion legend
Valentino.

Bill Reid
You’ve seen his work, if not in
person then on a Canada Post
stamp or a $20 bill issued from 2004-2012. The Vancouver artist is
perhaps most famous for his two bronze canoes. ‘The Spirit of Haida
Gwaii: The Jade Canoe’ greets people in the Vancouver Airport’s
international terminal, while ‘The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Black
Canoe’ is in the Canadian embassy in Washington D.C.

Kenojuak Ashevak
Kenojuak Ashevak was one of the early stars of
the Cape Dorset art scene and her famous
piece, The Enchanted Owl,graced a Canada Post
stamp in the 1970s. Cape Dorset in Nunavut is
home to some of Canada’s most popular First
Nations artists. When printmaking was
introduced to the area in the 1950s by local civic
administrator and artist James Houston, Inuit art,
in a form unusual for the Arctic (most was
sculpture), was able to reach south as never
before.
 Michael Barber

Memories and thoughts are never clear and my work reflects the layers
that hide or protect our past, the things we cherish and the things we’d
love to forget. Quite often in life things that are out of our control have
such impact on our lives, not physically really but emotionally, things
that we will carry with us forever. The good and the bad both weigh us
down and fill us up, to
the point that there’s
no room left.

Brian Allen Adams

Each painting brings forth the Spirit of Canada through the artist's
interpretation of Canadian and Native folklore, and his inspiration is
derived from nature, the history of Canada, the life of the Inuit, the
Hudson's Bay Company and the wonderful work done by Sir Wilfred
Grenfell.

Teresa Young

Teresa Young is a
Canadian Metis painter who specializes in surreal and abstract
acrylic paintings. Detailed, highly unique artwork with an aboriginal
flavour. My style developed from a early start in portrait painting
when I was a child and evolved into something that can't be found
anywhere else.