The 2026 Canadian Art Inspiration Student Challenge

Celebrating Canada’s Future Artists

What does Canada look like through your eyes? Which landscapes, memories, traditions, and communities shape your sense of belonging? For the sixth annual Canadian Art Inspiration Student Challenge, we invited students across the country to respond to the theme “Canada through My Eyes.” Young artists in Grades 7 through 12 answered with remarkable imagination and insight. Drawing inspiration from William Kurelek (1927–1977), Zachari Logan (b.1980), Meryl McMaster (b.1988), Norval Morrisseau (1932–2007), Annie Pootoogook (1969–2016), and others, students explored what it means to experience Canada through personal and often deeply meaningful lenses. Their works celebrate family traditions, cultural diversity, Indigenous identity, childhood memories, and the beauty of Canada's landscapes, while also engaging with contemporary concerns ranging from environmental change to the impact of emerging technologies. Together, these artworks offer a compelling portrait of the nation as seen by a new generation—one that is thoughtful, creative, and deeply connected to place and community.

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A student's drawing of a bear standing in a mountain landscape

A student's painting of two children eating maple syrup candy in a winter scene.

Exhibition

A drawing of a family inside a tent in a northern landscape

About Annie Pootoogook

Born in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), artist Annie Pootoogook (1969–2016) depicted her northern community in unprecedented ways, creating works on paper that earned her national and international recognition.

Student Statement

My painting depicts a Northern Canadian landscape and is inspired by Annie Pootoogook. Annie Pootoogook was an Inuit artist born in 1969 who can from a long line of artists. Annie’s art was inspired by Inuit people and their way of life. My piece is a pencil and watercolour painting of the Tombstone Mountains in the Yukon. The colours I chose are more exaggerated than real life, making the landscape pop. In the bottom corner, I drew a bear because I think it fits the solitary and calm atmosphere of the scene. I was inspired by Pootoogook’s Family Camping on the Land. The layering behind the tent and the soft pencil colouring informed my technique. I created similar layers in my work and used pencil edging to make the base paint coat stand out.

–Farrow MacDougall (Grade 9, Robert Service School, Dawson City, Yukon)

About Mary Pratt

Newfoundland and Labrador-based painter Mary Pratt (1935–2018) was a virtuoso observer of the everyday, capturing her subject matter—typically domestic scenes, sometimes featuring friends and family members—with near photographic detail and compelling complexity.

Student Statement

My artwork is inspired by Mary Pratt and her painting Another Province of Canada. Pratt is known for turning simple, everyday moments into meaningful and visually striking scenes. In my piece, I explore a Canadian activity: making and enjoying maple syrup. I chose to represent this tradition through a more personal lens by depicting a younger version of myself sharing the experience with a friend. Like Pratt, I pay close attention to small details, such as the texture and shine of the syrup candy. I show its translucency and how light reflects off its glossy surface to make it resemble glass. Connecting to the theme Canada Through My Eyes, my artwork shows how traditions like making maple syrup are more than just a Canadian pastime. They are memories and experiences that bring people of different cultures together. By combining inspiration from Pratt’s photo-realistic style with my own childhood perspective, my painting reflects both the cultural importance of this pastime and the personal meaning it holds for me.

–Sarah Mao (Grade 9, St. Theresa of Lisieux Catholic High School, Vaughan, Ontario)

Two people standing on a dock, holding a fish between them.

About Christopher Pratt

Christopher Pratt (1935–2022) was a prolific painter and printmaker known for his meticulously designed and carefully rendered depictions of atmospheric landscapes, architecture, and everyday life in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Student Statement

My painting, From North to New Horizons, shows a Canadian symbol, the moose, in an imagined quiet seaside train station. It stands out in this Japanese setting creating an interesting, slightly unexpected, yet peaceful scene. I was inspired by Christopher Pratt’s On Water Street – Sunlit. The stillness and simplicity of his work reminded me of a train platform. Like Pratt, I used strong horizontal lines to arrange the benches and organize the space. I also used soft sunlight to create a calm and quiet environment. The ocean in the background represents how different places are connected, reflecting cultural diversity, an important part of Canada’s identity. I have both Japanese and Canadian roots and live in Newfoundland. This artwork reflects who I am and my interests in combining different elements from my cultural background into one scene.

–Tiara Naka-Reynolds (Grade 9, St. Paul’s Junior High School, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador)

About Kazuo Nakamura

Kazuo Nakamura (1926-2002) was a Japanese Canadian painter, sculptor, and co-founding member of Painters Eleven, Ontario’s premier abstract artists collective. Nakamura created minimalist landscapes and introspective abstract compositions inspired by science, mathematics, and nature.

Student Statement

My artwork is about Canada and how different elements of nature come together in one drawing. Inspired by Kazuo Nakamura’s Suspended Landscape, I used a circle divided into two parts to represent the beauty of Canada’s natural landscapes in both the day and night, which is why I titled my piece Nychthemeron Mountains.

–Ziyu Wang (Grade 7, Dadi Studios, Montreal, Quebec)

About Tom Thomson

Though Tom Thomson’s (1877–1917) promising career as an artist was cut short, he has left an indelible mark on Canada’s landscape tradition. His bold and expressive paintings of vistas in Ontario’s Algonquin Park have come to define a visual identity considered to be distinctly Canadian.

Student Statement

This painting is set in Bon Echo, a famous camping location that my family has visited. I like camping because it’s a time when my family comes together. To remember those special trips to Bon Echo, I made a painting of my dad, my brother, and me in a kayak. It shows us on a calm lake surrounded by nature. The forest stretches across the landscape, and my family in the boat is admiring the view. I believe part of what makes Canada special is its natural beauty. At the same time, each and every one of us was either born in Canada or came from another country, and we are here together, forming a community. My artwork was inspired by Tom Thomson because he painted Canadian landscapes and used colours to help highlight how beautiful Canada really is.

–Hyeyul Kim (Grade 7, Ana Vatres Studio, Kingston, Ontario)

About Meryl McMaster

Meryl McMaster (b.1988) is an acclaimed photo-based artist whose works often explore constructions of identity in relation to the land and the more-than-human world. Using elaborate props, garments, and performative elements, McMaster creates richly staged self-portraits that blur boundaries between reality and imagination.

Student Statement

Inspired by Meryl McMaster’s photograph Anima, this self-portrait explores identity through an ethereal, dreamlike lens. I love the artist’s juxtaposition of her pale face and the colourful butterflies, which I try to capture in my painting. I reference my Métis and Polish heritage through the woven border and the beaded earrings, which reflect the colours of the Métis sash and Polish folk-art. As I begin to understand these parts of myself, the painting becomes an act of both inward reflection and outward observation. The luna moth covering one eye symbolizes subtle personal inner growth, while the other eye engages the viewer, suggesting awareness of the world beyond. The gaze follows the viewer as if watching. My shirt blends into the background, reflecting a desire to move beyond conformity and transform, like a moth. This symbol also connects to childhood memories of camping with my family in Ontario Parks, where I observed moths in nature. This work expresses my belief that being Canadian means embracing and exploring multiple heritages, allowing me to better understand who I am becoming. Being multicultural is the essence of being Canadian.

–Clementine Sweet Pea Beaulieu (Grade 11, Newtonville, Ontario)

About William Kurelek

Ukrainian Canadian artist William Kurelek (1927–1977) completed countless paintings of his childhood and early adulthood in Alberta and Manitoba. His memory paintings are arguably his best-known body of work.

Student Statement

William Kurelek was a famous Canadian artist known for painting his childhood in Canada. Inspired by his work, Reminiscences of Youth, a unique nostalgic image in which Kurelek shows himself observing the reconstruction of his own memories, Winters of Yesterday depicts my own childhood reminiscence of my favourite Canadian winter pastime – tobogganing and playing endlessly in the snow. Featuring my childhood self at school in Ontario on a snowy December day, the painting presents my dream-like point of view, projecting this nostalgic memory onto a screen at the front of a classroom. With this piece, I showcase that although Kurelek’s painting and mine are almost 50 years apart, the way Canadian children enjoy the winter season has not changed and resonates in the hearts of many Canadians.

–Luca Bourdos (Grade 10, St. Basil the Great College School, Toronto, Ontario)

About Zachari Logan

Zachari Logan (b.1980) is a nationally and internationally acclaimed contemporary artist based in Regina. Working across a range of media including drawing, ceramics, and installation, his large-scale botanical creations explore themes of masculinity, identity, and belonging.

Student Statement

Zachari Logan’s artwork explores themes of identity and place. Leshy No. 2 weaves together flesh and nature to create an in-between space that communicates how identity, particularly queer identity, transcends binary boundaries. Inspired by this hybridity and metaphor, I painted a reflective self-portrait that incorporates the Great Lakes, a distinct Canadian setting, as a character that expresses youth as an ambiguous period ofself-discovery. Reminiscent of Logan’s use of botanical motifs, the figure’s human qualities are fused with native plants and waters, producing an allegorical entity whose elemental diversity mirrors the complexity of identity formation. The figure’s wild, water-like core represents the uncertainty and inner turmoil that accompany self-discovery. The soothing array of blue ripples reveals the beauty of this undefinable process of becoming. In visualizing the fluidity of self-discovery, I invite viewers to see their reflections in the liminal waters and consider how place-based Canadian identities are created.

–Qing Yang (Olivia) Cheng (Grade 11, Havergal College, Toronto, Ontario)

About Norval Morrisseau

Norval Morrisseau (1931-2007) was an Anishinaabe artist from Thunder Bay who is celebrated as the “Picasso of the North.” His paintings merged Indigenous oral traditions, spirituality, and iconography with vibrant, colourful modern aesthetics.

Student Statement

I enjoy creating portraits of people who inspire me. I chose to paint Norval Morrisseau because he is a famous Indigenous artist who has not only influenced me but many other artists too. His paintings encourage controversy and highlight Indigenous storytelling. I feel connected to him in community and culture. His paintings make me feel seen and proud of who I am.

–Memoria Fiddler (Grade 12, Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, Thunder Bay, Ontario)

About Jean Paul Lemieux

Acclaimed painter Jean Paul Lemieux (1904–1990)—considered one of the most significant artists in the history of Canadian modernity—is known for his unembellished figurative depictions of the human condition.

Student Statement

As a child, my emotions were always amplified by the smallest things, and my sadness would overwhelm me. Something as small as my mother refusing to play in the snow with me during a minus 30-degree Calgary winter day caused me dejection so great that, in my mind, I would never again ask her to indulge me in that way. At the time, I was too naive and invested in my own feelings of rejection to understand my mother. As a Sudanese immigrant to Canada, she didn’t see the snow as I did. To me, it was a canvas to project my own universes onto and to her, the snow was an obstacle nipping at her heels during her commute to work, the murky slush reflecting responsibility and hardship. Jean Paul Lemieux’s Julie and the Universe (Julie et l’univers) is a painting that, to me, represents a similar childhood melancholy and reflects the emotions a landscape – even one as simple as my own backyard – can invoke.

–Lamias Sharshar (Grade 12, Lester B. Pearson High School, Calgary, Alberta)

About David Thauberger

David Thauberger (b. 1948) is a multidisciplinary painter, printmaker, and ceramist, known for his flat, colourful landscapes depicting iconic architecture and vast horizons across Canada’s prairies.

Student Statement

David Thauberger is a Canadian artist who was born in Holdfast, Saskatchewan. He is known for his colorful and surreal depictions of the prairies. His piece, Harvest Sunrise, portrays an unsettling feeling of perpetual space; the field expanding until it meets the pure blue sky. The still and artificial feeling of his work inspired me to create a piece that bridges the land of the living skies with artificial intelligence. With a new data center being approved just outside of Regina, the threats to Canadian art and wildlife are becoming increasingly urgent. I wanted to express the fear I feel about our diminishing prairies through a landscape painting that glitches. As AI quickly advances and leaks its way into the artistic community, my work acts as a warning about the effects this will have on our wildlife and the risks of abandoning real human-made art.

–Wren Dreher (Grade 11, Dr. Marten LeBoldus Catholic High School, Regina, Saskatchewan)

About Helen McNicoll

One of the nation’s most prolific artists, Helen McNicoll (1879–1915) garnered acclaim for her bright and sunny representations of rural landscapes, child subjects, and modern female figures—works that helped popularize Impressionism in Canada.

Student Statement

This painting captures a memory from a family trip to Lake Superior in autumn. Although I was surrounded by my family, I felt lonely and directionless, thinking about how short life can be and how uncertain love often feels. While my younger sister collected stones along the shore, I walked alone on the pebbled beach with those thoughts in my mind. What I remember most is that everything was orange—the sky, the water, the light on my grandfather, and the entire landscape. That warmth did not erase my sadness, but it softened it. The colour of the sunset felt embracing, as if nature was holding me still for a moment and allowing me to breathe. In that silence, my worries became quieter. When I painted this piece later, I was reminded that even while feeling lost, life still offers moments of beauty worth continuing for. I was inspired by Sunny September by Helen McNicoll. Her textured brushwork influenced my own use of visible strokes to create atmosphere.

–Jack Wang (Grade 10, Thomas A. Blakelock High School, Oakville, Ontario)

The 2025 Canadian Student Art inspiration Challenge

Celebrating Canada’s Future Artists

View Exhibition

Composite image of an aerial photograph of a river (left) and a surreal painting of blended city and mountain landscape (right).

The 2024 Canadian Student Art inspiration Challenge

Celebrating Canada’s Future Artists

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Composite of two paintings. LEFT: portrait of two youg women in front of water. RIGHT: portrait of a woman with a young child.

The 2023 Canadian Student Art inspiration Challenge

Celebrating Canada’s Future Artists

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Gallery