The Jackson Beardy Portrait, by Helen Granger Young, is a fully archival limited edition printed in the Giclée process utilizing eight pigmented inks on high grade artist's canvas.

       Born July 24, 1944 at Island Lake, Manitoba, Quentin Pickering Jackson Beardy was educated at a Government Residential School and studied art at the Winnipeg Technical Vocational High School and the University of Manitoba.  In his 20's and on through the later stages of his life he struggled with episodes of serious illness, suffering with ulcers and a heart condition.

       Beardy's art drew on his acquired deep knowledge of aboriginal traditions which he gained from a close childhood relationship with his grandmother as well as his personal search and collection of the myths and legends of his Cree heritage in Northern Manitoba.

       In 1972 Jackson joined with aboriginal artists Odjig, Morrisseau, Ray, Janvier, Cobiness, and Sanchez to form what came to be known as the Woodlands "Group of Seven".

       Although Beardy's early work often narrates specific legends, his mature art expresses fundamental cosmological and spiritual concepts such as the balances in nature, regeneration and growth, and the interdependence of all things.

       Beardy's distinctive graphic style is characterized by precisely defined flat areas of warm colours and curving, flowing ribbons of paint.

       From 1982 through 1983 Jackson Beardy was the senior arts advisor to the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

       At 40 years of age Jackson Beardy passed away in Winnipeg, Manitoba on December 8, 1984 prematurely ending his significant founding contribution toward the growing Aboriginal art movement in North America.

       "I first met Jackson Beardy at an Art Show at the Winnipeg Canoe Club in the late sixties.  He approached me to ask why Helen Granger Young, a non-native was creating sculptures of the North American Indians.  It was rather difficult to answer his question at that moment, so I invited him to come to my studio.

       At that time I had one model of the series (Beaverhead) on the market, and was preparing several others.  They were in different stages of development.  Some were in plasticine and some were in plaster with the fittings for the molds.  There were also many paintings of natives in my studio, such as the Sioux and Assiniboia.

       Jackson seemed puzzled but pleased.  I explained my deep interest in the native culture, and that I had done my thesis in College on the Inuit.  I had dreamed of doing the North American Indian Series from the time I was a young girl.

       He came back to visit time and again, sometimes bringing his wife and first child on a cradle board.  As they sat and sat, I could not help but paint them.  They were pleased and happy to sit in friendship. Over the days, months, and years, Jackson would stop by and we became friends.  My family was thrilled that he would sometimes come in full dress, as were the children of the neighbourhood.  This is how I came to paint him in buckskins.

       One Sunday, years after we had met, he came to see me.  He seemed so sad.  He wanted to see the painting of him in costume.  He told me that he had a dream of sitting in front of the painting and remembering the way it was.  So he sat in front of the painting and told me sad and happy stories of his life.  He felt that by telling these stories he was passing on his spirit into the painting.

       Hours later, when he left, he seemed to be filled with peace.  Within the next few days I was informed that he had passed on to the other world.  I was saddened, but I am privileged to still have the memories of the man in my painting, and of his pride and hopes for his people."