ART
Melissa’s Road Race is famous for its long-sleeved shirt featuring specially commissioned artwork. With the help of Canada House Gallery, each year an artist is selected who has a special connection to Banff National Park.
2026
Known for his “talking trees”, artist K. Neil Swanson has brought a full-blown colour palette, honouring the beauty of fall in the Rockies for the 2026 Melissa’s Road Race. The artwork portrays some of the amazing sights participants enjoy along the north end of town with Mount Norquay and Mount Brewster and many other landmarks to take in. Wild roses in the foreground, along with elk frequently seen in the area, complete the vista.
Want to see more of K. Neil Swanson's work - visit the Canada House Gallery HERE
2025
In 2025, the artist was Billie Rae Busby who was featured at the Canada House Gallery. The abstract mountain scene is created through Billie’s signature hard-edge painting technique and colour theory to depict wonder, movement, mood and time. The colour palette represents a bright autumn day at Banff’s Cascade Mountain with orange and yellow larch trees of the area and an energetic blue sky. The original painting’s title “To Cascade” represents the prominent location and implies a flow of runners swiftly moving along the base.
2024
This 2024 artist was Sheila Kernan who created a beautiful multicoloured image of the Melissa’s runners traveling down famous Banff Avenue with spectacular Cascade Mountain as the backdrop. Sheila is an Alberta based artist who is known for her unique, sophisticated, and tactile aesthetic. Her work oscillates between realism and abstraction, referencing memory and imagination. Her compositions are meticulously crafted, cultivated through her use of referential collages made from multiple photographs and sketches. In 2017, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award as the recipient of the Alberta University of the Arts Alumni Legacy Award.
2023
Robert Roy was the 2023 artist who created a beautiful rendition of runners on route at Melissa’s with the famous Banff Springs Hotel as the backdrop. Born in Ste-Perpétue, Quebec, Robert Roy at first worked in his family's general store. However, when his father retired and discovered painting as a hobby, Robert, who was just 18, also became fascinated with painting and colour. Inspired by people in movement or street scenes, Roy’s paintings are characterised by freedom of movement and a lively expressionist style in which colour and emotion reigns. Robert Roy’s appreciation for life is felt in all his work, because he likes to paint as he likes to live; that is with great pleasure and joie de vivre.
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018