About The Artists
About the Artists
Heritage Sports Art’s team of highly regarded and accomplished visual artists and their works celebrate, epitomize, and define the unique beauty of sports-themed art. Known for their punctilious attention to detail, meet our trio of exceptional artists:
Nola McConnan
Toronto-based artist Nola McConnan is an Associate of OCAD University (formerly the Ontario College of Art and Design). For more than 40 years, her work as a graphic artist, fine artist, and designer has earned her recognition and praise in a variety of corporate and private venues throughout North America.
In 1999, Nola made the leap from painting nature-related pieces she is so well-known for to sports-themed art. She has since created more than 1250 uniform watercolor paintings, and drawn more than 300 pen and ink renderings of stadia, arenas, and ballparks.
Her works include all of MLB’s National League uniforms, almost all of the NCAA football uniforms, all of the CFL uniforms, as well as many of the NFL uniforms and NHL jerseys.
She uses transparent watercolor, egg tempera, graphite, pencil crayon and original prints to interpret what she sees, and breathe life eternal into the paintings, drawings, and portraits she creates.
She is an advocate for visual art, as well as publicly accessible visual art spaces and programs for aspiring artists. Nola is also a signing member of the Toronto Watercolor Society, and an associate for a number of arts-focused groups including the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolor, Visual Arts Mississauga, and the Colored Pencil Society of America.
In 2024 Nola won a prestigious award from the American Watercolor Society (AWS) at their 157th annual international exhibition and was invited to receive her award at the AWS's annual event in New York City.
Tino Paolini
A distinguished and revered artist known for his oil painted portraits, acrylic paintings, and watercolors; Tino Paolini joined the Heritage Sports Art team in the mid-1990s.
The former Head of Art at St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario, for 34 years, he graduated from McMaster University's Fine Arts program with a Hons. B.A. and he holds a BEd. from the University of Toronto.
Tino developed an affinity for watercolor painting through years of producing successful commercial-related artworks. His elaborate and detailed work can be marveled at through the approximately 500 uniform paintings he produced for the Heritage Sports Art collection. Those works include all of the NHL’s Original Six teams’ paintings, an iconic painting of NHL legend Wayne Gretzky’s on-ice farewell to fans in his final season as a player, roughly 2500 of the NFL uniform prints (especially those of the older franchises) and 100+ MLB uniforms.
His works appear in a wide variety of corporate and private venues and at St. Andrew’s College.
William Band
William Band is an Associate of OCAD University (formerly the Ontario College of Art and Design) and a freelance artist who works primarily with watercolors, pencil, ink, pastels, and oil.
He studied under greats such as renowned LaSalle artist W.F. Stidsworthy, noted oil and acrylic landscape painter Alan C. Collier, realistic illustrator and painter Franklin Arbuckle, and famed watercolor painter Jack Reid.
A successful commercial artist, William was an instructor at the Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning for more than 21 years teaching commercial and fine art. He continues to lead a number of hands-on art workshops across southern and central Ontario and run the William Band Studio in Georgetown, Ontario.
William painted nearly 200 watercolor pieces for Heritage Sports Art’s collection, including all of the MLB’s American League team uniforms, and several NFL football uniform paintings.
Get the full Story of the Art.