Ronald L. Bloore was born May 29, 1925 in Brampton, Ontario. He studied art and archaeology at the University of Toronto (1949), the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (1949-51), Washington University in St. Louis (1953), Belgian-American Art Seminar in Brussels and Antwerp (1955), and the Courtault Institute, University of London, England (1955-57). After brief teaching stints at Brixton Day College in England and the University of Toronto, Bloore became an Instructor of art and archaeology at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina College and the Director of its Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery.

Bloore was based in Regina for only a brief period of time, from 1958 to 1966, but while there he made a deep and lasting impression. As Director of the Gallery he was noted for his energy and determination to bring the art world to the prairies. He sponsored and contributed to the infamous “Win Hedore” exhibit at the Mackenzie in 1961, where car parts and buckets of sand challenged viewers’ notions of art, and enraged the more conservative. He acquired the sculpture “Mother and Child” by Jacques Lipshitz - a bold and farsighted move.

Bloore exhibited with Ken Lochhead, Art McKay, Ted Godwin, and Doug Morton in the National Art Gallery’s “Five Painters from Regina” show in 1961. By 1964, however, the group had split up. Two years later Bloore left Regina to teach visual art and art history at York University in Toronto where he remained for the rest of his working career. Ron Bloore died on September 4, 2009.

Ted Godwin was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1933 studying at the Alberta Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary from 1951 to 1955. He also attended several Emma Lake Artists Workshops, including those led by Barnett Newman (1959), John Ferren (1960), Jules Olitski (1964), and Lawrence Alloway (1965). From 1955 to 1964 he worked in the commercial art field as Art Director for CJLH Channel 7 in Lethbridge, and a neon designer, winning 2nd prize at an international neon design competition, N.E.S.A. in 1958.

In 1962-63 he spent the year sketching and painting in Greece on a Canada Council grant and was hired by the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus to teach at the School of Art in 1964.

Godwin remained at what became the Visual Art Department at the University of Regina for the rest of his working career. He exhibited with Ken Lochhead, Art McKay, Ron Bloore, and Doug Morton as one of the Regina Five. Following the Regina Five years he became known for his large Tartan paintings. A heart condition (which eventually forced him to retire in 1985) produced the Dying Orchids series in 1974. From the mid 1970s to the present, Godwin has produced several series of large and vivid landscape paintings.

In 1991 Godwin mounted exhibitions of new work simultaneously in four Canadian cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, and Toronto. The show was known as the Lower Bow project and Ted was present to open each of the exhibitions; Calgary Thursday evening, Regina Friday, Toronto on Saturday, and Vancouver on Monday. In 1999, The Nickle Arts Museum of Calgary mounted and toured a major examination of Godwin's Tartans and in 2008 the Nickle mounted a major touring exhibition of Godwin’s Regina Five Years, 1957 to 1967.

Ted Godwin was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1974, and was awarded the Queens Silver Jubilee Medal 1978. For his Messages from the Real World A Handbook for the Emerging Artist, (1999) Ted won the Sask Book Award for best new publication (Educational). He was awarded the Alberta College of Art and Design Board of Governors Award of Excellence and was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Regina in 2001. In 2004, for his excellence in the field of visual arts, Ted was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2010, he was chosen Artist of the Year by Trout Unlimited.

Ted Godwin has been exhibiting his work since 1955 and has had more than 60 solo exhibitions. He currently resides in Calgary where he devotes himself to writing, painting, fishing, Tai Chi, and Alcoholics Anonymous.

Kenneth Lochhead was born in Ottawa in 1926. His major art training came from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (1945-1949). At the same time, Lochhead studied at the Barnes Foundation, Merlon, Pa., from 1946 to 1948. Several scholarships allowed him to study in England, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and western Canada. After several short assignments, Lochhead was hired by the University of Saskatchewan, Regina College, in 1950 to direct the School of Art. He was also charged by Dean Riddell to develop what became the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery.

Under Lochhead's guidance, both the School and the Gallery flourished, attracting vibrant personalities and generating excitement. At this time Lochhead developed a distinctive style, producing such notable works as "The Kite" (1952), "The Dignitary" and "The Bonspiel" (1954). As well, he began to win major commissions, completing an enormous wall mural at Gander Airport in Newfoundland in 1957-58.

It was Lochhead's influence on the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops, however, that attracted the most attention to the prairie region. With the summer series led by such New York artists as Herman Cherry, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski, international attention was suddenly focused to the north.

With Art McKay, Ron Bloore, Ted Godwin, and Doug Morton, Lochhead displayed his paintings at the National Gallery of Canada in 1961 in the show "Five Painters from Regina". In 1964, however, he was the first to leave Regina, accepting a teaching position with the University of Manitoba. He did not stay there, but went on to York University in Toronto and finally to the University of Ottawa.

Arthur (Art) McKay was born on September 11, 1926, in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. He studied in Calgary at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art from 1946 to 1948 and later studied at the Academie de La Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France, at Columbia University in New York and at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania.

Returning to Canada, Art McKay was hired as a Special Lecturer in Art with the School of Fine Arts at Regina by Ken Lochhead. He became Associate Professor of Art in 1956 and served as the Director of the School of Art from 1964 to1967.

McKay spent a term teaching art at the Nova Scotia College of Art in 1967-68, and taught at the University of Regina as an Associate Professor until his retirement in 1987.

He attended and helped plan the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops in 1955 (with Jack Shadbolt), 1957 (with Wil Barnet), and 1959 (Barnett Newman).

McKay is known as one of the Regina Five who exhibited at the National Gallery in 1961. These five artists were considered to be leaders of the Canadian abstract art movement. McKay’s work has been shown all across Canada and in the United States, he was included in the Los Angeles exhibition organized by the New York art critic, Clement Greenberg entitled "Post-Painterly Abstraction" in 1964. Only three Canadians were to be included in this show.

McKay is most noted for his "mandalas" (scraped enamel using circular and rectangular formats creating highly contemplative images which reflect his interest in Zen Buddhism).

Douglas Morton is one of the senior academic art administrators in Canada. Born in 1926 in Winnipeg, he studied art at the Winnipeg School of Art (1946-47), the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1947-48), the Academie Jullan, L'Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Studio of Andre L'Hote in Paris, France (1949), and the Camberwell School of Art and the studio of Martin Bloch in London, England (1950-51). His professional artistic career continued in 1951-53 as curator for the Calgary Allied Arts Centre. Although involved in the business world as vice-president and manager of MacKay-Morton Ltd in Regina from 1954 to 1967, Morton took an active interest in art.

In 1961 Morton exhibited with Ken Lochhead, Art McKay, Ron Bloore, and Ted Godwin at the National Gallery of Canada in the show "Five Painters from Regina". He joined the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus in 1967 as Director of Visual Arts and Associate Professor of Art. He left Regina few years later to take up a position at York University in Toronto. From 1969 to 1980, he held a variety of posts, including Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate M.F.A. Programme (1973-76), Acting Chairperson, Department of Visual Arts (1978), and Vice-chairperson of Senate (1979). Morton was also Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria 1980-85, and President, Alberta College of Art, 1985-87.

Throughout his academic administrative career, Morton developed a reputation for effective management and the formulation of innovative and creative fine arts programs.