Wynona Croft Mulcaster (1915 – 2016), fondly called “Nonie,” was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Mulcaster was just 17 when she enrolled in her first art class, taught by Ernest Lindner. She earned a BA from the University of Saskatchewan in 1943, and an MFA at the Institute Allende, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico in 1976, where she moved to the following year.

Throughout her life, Mulcaster enjoyed combining her passions for art, teaching, and horses. In 1945, she founded the Saskatoon Pony Club, the first pony club in Saskatchewan. Horses, which can be seen depicted in some of her most famous prairie landscapes, were her primary subject matter before she transitioned to landscape painting.

Mulcaster was influential as an art teacher and mentor. She taught art in elementary schools in Prince Albert and rural Saskatchewan, before becoming the Director of Art Education at the Saskatchewan Teachers’ College in Saskatoon, where aspiring artists Henry Bonli and Otto Rogers were among her students. During her time as Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Art at the University of Saskatchewan (1964-1977), Mulcaster’s students included Robert Murray and Allen Sapp.

In the late 1930s, she helped establish the forerunner of the famed Emma Lake Artists Workshop and attended from 1937-1993. In the late 1940s, Mulcaster studied with Arthur Lismer at the Art Association of Montreal, and with A.Y. Jackson at the Banff School of Fine Arts.

Her work has been exhibited widely across Canada and can be found in many private and public collections. In 2015, the Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert celebrated Mulcaster’s 100th birthday with an exhibition of her work.