Saskatchewan Artist

William Roy Brownridge

Born in 1932 in Rosetown, Saskatchewan, William Roy Brownridge faced hardship early on as the youngest of five children in a poor family. Medical difficulties required the amputation of one of his legs and part of his other foot—a circumstance that Brownridge would late cite as a source of artistic inspiration.

After graduating from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art in 1957, Brownridge worked as a graphic designer for 30 years while also pursuing his own artistic interests. In 1975, he was awarded a Canada Council grant to paint and draw the disappearing railroad architecture of the Prairies, and in 1981 he received a commission from the Calgary Winter Olympic Development Association to create a series of serigraphs depicting Olympic events.

Sports—particularly hockey—are a major theme in Brownridge's work. As a child, he loved watching his brothers play hockey, and as Brownridge himself says, “I paint from within, I paint my memories--things that mean something to me.” Brownridge designed uniforms for the Calgary Flames and wrote three children's books about hockey—The Moccasin Goalie in 1995, The Final Game in 1997, and Victory at Paradise Hill in 2002.