Artist Ted Harrison not only brought the Yukon landscape to the world with his unique paintings, but is being remembered by those who knew him as a kind, “classy” gentleman.

The late former Yukoner is also being praised for supporting and encouraging many Yukoners over the years.

Harrison died Friday in Victoria at the age of 88.

“He did a lot of behind-the-scenes work,” Laurel Parry of the Yukon arts branch said today.

She noted a number of prints and pieces he donated to various causes around the territory in addition to the donation of his land on Crag Lake, south of Whitehorse, for the establishment of the Ted Harrison Artist Retreat.

Parry’s best memories of the artist, though, go back to art classes in high school, when Harrison taught at F.H. Collins Secondary School in the late 1970s.

Passionate about art, Harrison created a “beautiful atmosphere” in his classroom that seemed more like an art studio than a traditional class.

There, Harrison shared his skills and knowledge with students, often bringing in his own pieces to work on.

“It was really fun to watch that level of skill and confidence,” Parry said, recalling Harrison’s process that saw him “map out” a painting first before dipping into the acrylic paints.

Parry often finds herself looking for her own pink paint in Harrison’s paintings from that era.

During one class, she had mixed a rather large “blob” of pink. Harrison saw it and asked if he could use some, adding it to his own piece he was working on at the time.

She also remembers the encouragement Harrison offered his students, remembering moments marching down the hallways of the school to get to the right spot where the students’ work could be displayed.

Other times, Harrison brought his gift for storytelling to the classroom, delivering what Parry said were often “called his sermons” about art history.

Harrison’s life has been well-documented, chronicling his years growing up in Wingate, England, onto his attendance in art school and serving in the military during the Second World War.

Going on to earn a certificate in teaching, Harrison travelled throughout the world, moving to the Yukon in 1968 with his wife, Nicky, now deceased, and son Charles.

Parry pointed out it was in the territory that Harrison found “his voice” in the unique paintings that often displayed the brilliant colours of the Yukon sky, or a “Harrison sky,” as many Yukoners have since termed it.

Featured in paintings were other unique Harrison-style features that are part of life in the territory.

“Sometimes he would put things like a blue moose in the scene and it would appear to fit,” artist Jim Robb said this morning. “It was a Ted Harrison thing to do.”

While he and Harrison had very different artistic styles, Robb noted he appreciated Harrison’s work and the encouragement he gave other artists like himself.

Always a gentleman, Harrison introduced the Yukon to the world with brilliant colours that had “impact and power,” Robb said.

Another local artist with her own unique style, Chris Caldwell, said today Harrison was an inspiration, full of dignity and class.

“We’ve lost an icon,” she said.

Caldwell proudly recalled with a laugh “victimizing” Harrison in one of her pieces where he served as a model for one of Caldwell’s pieces – featuring a caribou jumping over an artist at work on a painting, with the moose about to destroy the painting.

It was in 1979 that Ruth McCullough moved to the territory to take on the job as the first arts consultant with the Yukon government.

As she noted in an online post: “... it was very hard to work or be involved with the arts back then and NOT meet Ted.”

“He was just such a positive person,” she said in an interview this morning, pointing to the support he offered other artists.

McCullough later served as curator for the gallery in the Whitehorse library when Jim Logan and Ray Ladue each had their first exhibit.

She remembers Harrison’s presence there opening night, providing support to the up-and-coming artists and, of course, sharing a few stories.

She was also responsible for curating a retrospective exhibit of Harrison’s work for galleries across Canada. It was during her work looking at how he came to adopt his style that she came across a piece called Mountains Bennett Lake.

Immediately, Harrison told her it shouldn’t be included, explaining to her that he had wanted to throw it out after he’d painted it.

“But it was that painting that was the turning point,” she recalled. “He recognized that the colours were necessarily vibrant. That he’d included too much detail.

“And from there, he began his simplification and colourization. Being a great believer in art history and the artist’s development, he finally agreed with me that the work was pivotal and had to be included in the show.”

Harrison was also extremely supportive of the First Nations art community, she said.

It was in 1993 that Harrison left the territory for Victoria, where there were more services available to Nicky, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

McCullough noted there was a time when Harrison couldn’t imagine living outside of the Yukon. Though he had to leave, he was always pleased to come back.

She noted the massive line-up to speak with Harrison in 2009 at the book signing of his biography, Painting Paradise.

The biography was written by Katherine Gibson, who spent many hours with Harrison and continued to be good friends with him over the years. The book has since been adapted to a television documentary and, most recently, a children’s book.

Learning of his death Friday, Gibson said today, “I was shattered.”

She noted the Ted Harrison everyone knew “had left us some time ago” as he was suffering from dementia, but the last time she saw him in December, it was evident his painting on the cover of the book she showed him “resonated with him.”

She too noted there was a part of Harrison that never left the Yukon.

Harrison wrote the forward in the children’s book and, as she noted, it is the final piece of work he did.

“Working with Ted was like Christmas morning every day.”

It was just a few years ago that she and Harrison were invited for tea with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen.

In his true style, Harrison treated all those he met the same, going to tea dressed in the same clothes he wore every day (opting to leave his suit packed away) and chatting up those serving the tea as much as he did the Harpers.

Over the years, in addition to his paintings, Harrison wrote a number of children’s books, designed the Yukon pavilion for Expo 86, and a Canada Post stamp in 1996.

He was honoured with both the Order of Canada and inducted into the Royal Conservatory in 2005. He was also the Star’s editorial cartoonist in the 1970s and early ’80s.

“He was obviously a great Yukoner, a great artist,” longtime friend Tim Koepke, who’s been involved with the Harrison artist retreat, said this morning.

See premier’s remarks and letters.