By Iris Winston
“I am a painter first and a skater second,” said Toller Cranston, Companion of the Order of Canada, Olympic medalist and six-time Canadian figure skating champion. “The most important thing that people can say about me is to refer to me as a painter. The most infuriating thing is to be referred to as a skater who paints.”
His sister Phillippa Cranston Baran took on a Herculean task in trying to explain his larger-than-life personality and artistic ability, first through a biography and now in her newly published book, Toller Cranston Artistic Impressions.
“My brother was a remarkable person,” she says. “Trying to organize his life is almost impossible. There are threads of athleticism, art and creativity, but I had to find a way to deal effectively and adequately with his art, which is how he would have defined himself.”
“Most Canadians remember him as a figure skater, somebody who challenged the establishment and pushed for a new kind of skating,” she adds, noting that while they saw the artistry in his award-winning performances on the ice, they were unaware that he produced more than 20,000 massive oil paintings. “He is a significant international artist whose works hang in public and private collections all over the world.”
Telling Toller’s story through his art would have been challenging even if he had kept meticulous records over the years.
“But he never kept any records, so it would have been impossible to organize images chronologically,” says Phillippa. “Neither did his work change significantly over the years. You can see elements of his style even in some of what he did as a child. There was no pictorial record until he went to live in Mexico in 1993.”
From this point on, she says, he had several shows each year and the photographers who catalogued his work were very generous in sharing their files with her as she worked on the book.
“This was the time when he was at his most prolific and his work was at the highest level. The next challenge was to find a voice for the book, and that was the hardest thing for me,” says Phillippa, whose career has ranged from teaching at university, producing films and writing movie and television scripts to farming dairy goats. “I’m not remotely knowledgeable about art and I wouldn’t presume to comment on the value of art, but I could write about my brother. So that’s what I have done.
“And the best way to understand his painting is to understand him. He’s very quotable, erudite and entirely self-taught as an artist. His voice comes through very strongly. Because I’m not professing to be an art expert, the text is not intimidating. I think the book will resonate with people because it’s not pretentious and it is absolutely beautiful.”
A third major challenge delayed the publication of Artistic Impressions. Following Toller’s fatal heart attack in 2015, his estate was tangled in litigation for a decade because two younger brothers sued Phillippa, who was the executor. She was eventually completely vindicated but, during the litigious period, was not able to publish any images showing Toller’s paintings.
As it turns out, the timing of the publication coincides with a key date in Toller’s life. He won his Olympic bronze 50 years ago. In addition, 2026 is an Olympic year. Furthermore, says Phillippa, “This is a time when Canadians are looking at their own heroes with even more pride than they might have done five or six years ago. Therefore, having a book about a Canadian icon, who produced work of great quality and is celebrated internationally, coming out now is really good timing.”
As Phillippa writes in the introduction of her book: “We Canadians are not always quick to celebrate our own. We should be. Toller Cranston is an icon. His roots are ordinary. His talent is extraordinary. His work ethic is off the charts. His impact on people is astonishing. I hope that this book will help people better appreciate the genius of my brother’s work by seeing it through the filter of his life and experience. I am fiercely proud of my brother and I have an unflinching respect for his talent as an artist, a Canadian and a human being.”
Toller Cranston Artistic Impressions was published in November 2025 by Sutherland House, Toronto.
(ISBN 978-1-997701-02-6)
