Mission Statement
Our mission is to inspire and help individuals discover and embrace their artistic identity, fostering a collective sense of creativity that enriches and unites our regional communities.
Winnipeg River Arts is passionately dedicated to enhancing the North Eastman Region by providing support, empowerment, and connectivity through the arts
Services
WRAC looks forward to serving residents, visitors, artists and arts groups within the Winnipeg River corridor (east of Highway 11 and north of Highway 317). The region is culturally diverse and home to many talented artists and arts organizations that provide opportunities for arts and culture. WRAC’s regional structure will help community arts organizations, schools and recreation services work together to plan larger regional arts initiatives by facilitating the sharing of resources, information and talents. WRAC seeks to contribute to economic grow by promoting the region’s arts and cultural assets to residents and tourists.
Artist Of The Month
Rhian Brynjolson – Focus on Local Artists – Issue #157
October 2025
Rhian Brynjolson
For this month, WRAC highlights the artistic career of artist/writer Rhian Brynjolson. Although she grew up on the prairies, her favourite days are now spent hiking or kayaking where she lives, in the south Whiteshell area, with her camera or sketchbook in hand.
She said, “I’ve had the good fortune to work in arts related jobs for most of my career: as an instructor with the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Studio Programs, as a book illustrator and author, as an instructor in schools throughout Manitoba with the Manitoba Arts Council’s Artists in Schools Program, and as an art teacher in the Winnipeg School Division.”
Brynjolson has also collaborated with scientists on projects to communicate research on climate change and its effects on forests and agricultural lands, and with fellow artists on exploring issues affecting algae blooms on Lake Winnipeg.
She said, “I think I’ve illustrated 16 books now, for Pemmican Publications and HighWater Press, and published a book for teachers, Teaching Art, with Portage & Main Press, which was illustrated with student artwork. I guess if you work long enough, your resumé starts to read like a novel!”
Her most recent project has been illustrating a book for HighWater Press, working with author William Dumont and the Six Seasons editorial team, consisting of elders from the O Pipon Na Piwin Cree Nation, and academics from several universities. The story, “Maskiykiy Miskanaw,” recreates life in the community as it may have been before European contact, and includes textboxes with facts about Cree history and language. Each illustration needed to be critiqued and approved by the team for accuracy, so she created the images on her laptop, working with layers in PhotoShop, for easy editing.
Brynjolson is a talented painter, and gets inspired by switching between watercolours, acrylics and water-based oil paints. In winter, she savours the many quiet days when she spends her time in her forest studio, reviewing the hundreds of beautiful boreal images she collected during the warmer seasons.
Her paintings have been included in the Government of Manitoba art collection, and the Boreal Shores Art Tour every August. They can also be found for sale at the Owl Wing Café at Falcon Trails Resort (where you’ll also find excellent coffee and ski trails!)
She said, “The forest where I live is also is my motivation for studying the effects of climate change. I’ve worked with researchers who measure the effects of rising temperatures on melting glaciers, melting permafrost, increases in wildfire, and changing watersheds. It’s a challenge to interpret their data and try to represent the information in visual form, through painting, or digital art slides for their presentations. On one field trip to a weather station near Canmore, AB, we witnessed an avalanche — although luckily it was from the other side of the valley!”
Brynjolson feels exceptionally lucky to have studied visual art at the U of M, with accomplished artist-teachers Ivan Eyre, Steve Gouthro, Ted Howarth, Robert Archambeau, Dianne Whitehouse, and many more. For her, the best thing about art school was spending full days drawing, painting, and printmaking, and learning from other students’ approaches to artmaking.
Her words of advice: “For people starting out in the arts, I recommend building as much of an art community as you can, and taking as many classes and workshops as you can. You’ll find that different perspectives will challenge and strengthen your views and techniques, and you’ll find solutions to problems in the lives and works of other artists.”
You can find her work online at: www.rhianbrynjolson.com, www.virtualwatergallery.com, www.highwaterpress.com, and on social media at #rhianbrynjolson.
