The Art of Skating

It would be difficult to find a Canadian adult who hasn’t at least tried skating, let alone played hockey, done figure skating or put on blades to glide through a forest on a groomed skating trail.

Skating has been part of Canadian life, and art, since the country’s founding.

Contemporary Canadian artist Brandy Saturley (featured here before) explains in this great essay why winter (not just skating) is such a strong visual archetype in Canadian art. 

Canadian winter paintings endure because they capture something essential: our ongoing relationship with the land, our resilience, and our capacity to find beauty even in the coldest of seasons – Brandy Saturley

---

Above, one of the eye catching works of Muskoka artist Beverley Hawksley. Below, artist William Kurelek, who grew up on the cold, sere praries, accurately depicted childhood skating.

Hockey on a pond

This painting by the late realist painter Ken Danby captures one version of an iconic Canadian winter scene – pond or river or lake hockey. (See more about Danby at the National Gallery of Canada, here)

Since Canada has about 20 per cent of the world’s fresh water, and the most lakes globally, it makes sense that almost any historic archive in this country holds winter skating scenes. Below, a watercolour by John George Howard with people skating, sleighing, cutting ice for refrigeration on Toronto Bay in 1835.

Flying on the ice

If you skate well, flying across the ice in a forward spiral is an art, as revered Canadian artist Alex Colville captures below.

Below, Quebec City skaters on the St. Lawrence, late 1800s, published as a supplement of the Quebec Daily Telegraph. The lithography gives an early glimpse of the famed Quebec Winter Carnival festivities at a time when the river’s ice density was high enough to make skating possible.

This painting by Molly Lamb Bobak (1920–2014), titled “Skaters on the Rideau Canal, Ottawa” (no date), shows skaters enjoying a sunny winter day at the popular attraction.

Skaters on a stamp

I love the contemporary vibe of Henri Masson’s Skaters 1971 from Hull, Quebec, below.

Masson was born in Belgium, immigrated to Ottawa in 1921 and became a master engraver before devoting himself to painting scenes of everyday life across Quebec. His painting of a neighbourhood rink in Hull became a Christmas stamp in 1974.

Toller Cranston (1949–2015, Hamilton, Ontario) was renowned as an Olympic medalist and as an internationally recognized painter. Acclaimed as one of the most influential figure skaters of the 20th century, he revolutionized the sport with unique artistry. In parallel, his bold paintings—developed over a lifetime alongside his skating—earned respect.

Boots & Blades, an interactive history of figure skating in Canada, here.

*Amazing outdoor skating rinks in Canada, here.

A list of Ontario’s maintained skating trails through forests, here.

---

*Just FYI, Canadian Leigh McAdam’s HikeBikeTravel.com is one of the best inspirational travel blogs around.