"The paintings of Clarence Tillenius transport you to the wild open plains of the past, into the protective and secretive worlds hidden around us, and lift you to where you can feel the primeval vastness of the forest and the mountains. Life as it was, as we often nostalgically wish for, will be opened up to you, evoking both joy and sadness and a peaceful sense of appreciation for the man who painted it, Clarence Tillenius." Dr. Philip H.R. Stepney, Director Provincial Museum of Alberta.

From December 2004 until May 2005 Clarence Tillenius painted two bears, the "Pondering Grizzly" and the "Knights of the Polar Circle" each weighing 10,000 pounds, made of cement and about 8 feet tall in a sitting posture. They are part of the clan of sixty two bears painted by a number of Manitoba artists for the Bears On Broadway Cancer Care Manitoba fundraiser project.

The only Grizzly bear of the sixty two bears was the one painted by Clarence, and it is located in front of the Manitoba Legislature, while his "Knights of the Polar Circle" is located on the Broadway boulevard across from the Fort Garry Hotel, several hundred meters west of Main Street.

PC users Right-Click here to download a movie of Clarence telling the stories of the 15 smaller Polar bears he painted around the body of the "Knights of the Polar Circle" bear. This is a 7 MByte Quicktime MPEG-4 ISMA file, best viewed using Apple's QuickTime Player. Movie recorded by Donna Kurt on May 21, 2005 at Kapyong Barracks. Copyright © 2005 Clarence Tillenius.

The following images are of Clarence Tillenius and his two bears.

Title	In The White Silence
Painted	1976
Description	In the 1950s Tillenius travelled by dogsled with the Inuit hunters of Southampton Island in the Canadian Arctic to watch them hunt Nanook (The White Bear) so he could make paintings of polar bears.

Title	Cougar Kittens
Painted	1980
Description	Variegated pattern of spots on the baby cougars which show up so plainly in sunshine make them hard to see in the shade of leafy bushes.

Title	Nursery On The Move
Painted	1986
Description	The low grunting of the buffalo cows on the move seems like a message to the tawny little calves not to stray too far from their mothers.

Title	In the Polar Night
Painted	1984
Description	The Great Bear, haloed by the arctic moonlight, stands listening to the night sounds of the polar sea.