IndigenousThe La Ronge Arts Council is honouring Métis artist Roger Jerome with a lifetime membership. La Ronge Arts Council recognizes Roger Jerome with lifetime membershipLouise BigEagle · CBC News · Posted: Nov 21, 2025 1:01 PM EST | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Métis artist Roger Jerome often paints portraits of community members in the La Ronge, Sask., area. (Submitted by La Ronge Arts Council)The La Ronge Arts Council in La Ronge, Sask., an organization that supports local artists through engagement and culture, is holding an event this week to honour Roger Jerome.Jerome, 80, best known for his centennial mural in the Saskatchewan legislature, will receive a lifetime membership in the council.“I am very honoured — all through the province there’s great artists and here in the North — to be recognized this way by my peers and colleagues,” he said.Jerome was born in England. His father, who is Métis from St. Louis, Sask., married his mother while stationed in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. They returned to Saskatchewan when Jerome was around five.Jerome’s teachers liked his drawings but after working in the Anglo-Rouyn copper mine he was inspired to take his art further.“After a rain I was just amazed by the colour that was brought out in those rocks,” said Jerome.He went to Brandon, Man., to learn commercial art and had a long career, and a deep connection with the local arts community. In 2005, Jerome won the competition to paint a mural in the Saskatchewan Legislature building marking the province’s centennial.Jerome knew the mural had to be northern Indigenous focused, so he included paddlers, a float plane, the bush and the waters.“In the past the lakes and rivers were all the highways in the north and the float planes were a transition,” said Jerome.Roger Jerome in front of his 2005 centennial mural at the Saskatchewan legislature in Regina. (Submitted by La Ronge Arts Council)Jerome said he learned his cousin Bob Boyer, who was also an artist, had submitted an entry but died before the winner was announced so he included Boyer’s initials in the call letters on the float plane to acknowledge him.Jerome said he admires the works of Indigenous artists from Saskatchewan like Alan Sapp and the realism of Michael Lonechild and living in the north, standing in the bush always inspires his art.Jerome said he has many unfinished paintings.“When I start a painting and it’s all going so well, its a feeling of falling in love again,” he said.”And when it becomes difficult I’ll start a new one… because I want to feel that way during the start of a painting again.”Jerome said he is happy to be recognized with a lifetime membership to the arts council.”We are looked upon as valued community members and I love that,” he said.Roger Jerome’s artwork of the Robertson Trading Post in La Ronge, Sask., which supported Indigenous artists by selling their work. (Submitted by La Ronge Arts Council)La Ronge Arts Council chair Lori Ulriksen said Jerome has been a part of the community for 30 years and she took art lessons from him 20 years ago.Ulriksen said Jerome has done portraits of local people and has done signs around the town.“Everywhere you go there are little pieces of him around,” said Ulriksen.Ulriksen said when she took a class from Jerome, he was doing a lot of pastel and now he is doing oil paintings, so he changes up his technique.“He’s a good model for the rest of us … He’s still actively doing his arts,” said Ulriksen.”He’s a real model of a working artist who has evolved and changed.”Ulriksen said the arts council wanted to acknowledge him a few years ago, but Jerome tends to be humble when it comes to showing his work to the public.ABOUT THE AUTHORLouise has been a journalist with CBC since September 2022. She is Nakota/Cree from Ocean Man First Nation. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Regina. Louise can be reached at louise.bigeagle@cbc.ca.
Métis artist honoured for decades of work reflecting northern Sask. communities
