Bennett Walk, 1982

Private Collection, Ottawa

Robert Budd, Introduction to “Ted Harrison Collected”, Madeira Park, British Columbia, 2015, pages 5-7

A trained and award-winning artist, Ted Harrison earned a teaching certificate in 1950, working in various locales, including New Zealand and Malaysia. Accepting a teaching position in northern Alberta in 1967, the British-born Harrison had long dreamed of experiencing Canada's north. During his time in the town of Wabasca, Harrison would play a pivotal role in developing a new Alberta teaching curriculum, through his recognition of a tailored teaching programme being vital to connect with the values and life experience of the Cree and Metis students. The programme would later become the basis for the bestseller “A Northern Alphabet”. Harrison later moved his family north to Caribou Crossing, Yukon, accepting a teaching job in the community. Before accepting the position, the painter “had just one criterion to satisfy before deciding to go: 'Does it have mountains?'”. He fell in love with the people and the community, exclaiming “it was a simple place to live. It was quiet, peaceful...just right.” “What sent his imagination soaring were the vibrant colours and rich landscapes. Yet Ted found it daunting and even impossible to capture the epic landscapes of the Yukon using the traditional styles he had relied upon in other places in the world.” The artist would create a new language to portray his surroundings, illustrating the vibrancy and rhythm he experienced through flowing, energetic lines and a full spectrum of lively colours, providing scenes brimming with life, activity and spirituality.