Sold for: $43,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Toronto
Sold sale of Canadian Post-War & Contemporary Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, November 22, 2012, lot 216a
Private Collection, Calgary

LITERATURE
William Kurelek, A Prairie Boy’s Winter, 1984, unpaginated

William Kurelek dedicated his book A Prairie Boy’s Winter to “everyone who ever spent a winter on the prairies – and for all the others who wonder what it was like.” In paintings such as Next Shelter, Two Miles, we have a glimpse of what winter looked like and felt like to the young Kurelek. The artist grew up on the Prairies in a Ukrainian farming family, first living in Alberta and then in Manitoba, north of Winnipeg. Although winter brought hardship, and farm chores had to be done, still Kurelek and his siblings found time to play – skiing, playing hockey, tunneling into snowdrifts, having snowball fights and taking part in other such spirited activities. Kurelek had a keen memory and could easily project himself back in time to the innocence of youth, as he does here. The day is sunny, and the children are animated, but we are aware of the cold and the distance across the expanse of the prairie, communicated by the narrow wedge of sky and thin line of buildings at the horizon. Nostalgic scenes of Kurelek’s childhood such as this are particularly desirable to collectors.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars