Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 03/99) - Dene painter Antoine Mountain comes from a family of artists.

"Everyone was an artists," he says.

"My mother and my four sisters all do handi-craft type work, quill work, birch bark baskets and willow baskets. I have two brothers that also do sculpting and carving."

Mountain's sister Judy, the eldest, has one of her moosehide coats, embroidered with silk, in the permanent collection of the Museum of Civilization in the nation's capital.

As for Mountain himself, he has moved away from what has been considered strict traditional painting.

"If you saw artwork from my school days in the '70s, you would see that it really has the woodland Indian style. Blocks of colour within the lines, graphics."

His modern materials and tools, as well as his art education have helped him evolve a style all his own. He respects and honours his culture and finds non-traditional ways of expressing it.

His paint of choice was once oil.

"Back in the early '70s. Oils mix well. But you can use acrylics the same way. It took a while, but I got it."

Oils are apparently also quite toxic, and Mountain does not recommend them -- especially to the youth he teaches in schools.

"And the acrylic dries so quick that mosquitos don't get a chance to land and stick -- a no parking zone here," he laughs.

Mountain likes to paint his larger pieces outside, to be able to look at them from a distance, and in natural light.

In fact, light plays a huge role in this painter's art.

"A lot of my work is intended to be looked at in a cabin-type setting, with natural light or fire light. It's meant for that interplay of light -- not the florescent theme, " he says wryly.

Mountain cites the impressionists as influences in his art, specifically Renoir and Monet.

These masters were known for their daring use of brushstroke and colour to create light-filled canvases.

"I'm almost completely colour-oriented," says the artist.

Mountain laughs when he says that some people even hang his painting upside down. It's possible because of the abstract nature of some paintings.

"Just as long as they don't use them as welcome mats, they can do as they please."

Often, the artist will paint from a photograph. He mentions several Northern photographers whose images have inspired him: Janice Phillips, Donna Dahm, Stefan Folkers, Marilyn Dzaman, Dennis Allen and Jarvis Gray.

And lately, Mountain has been turning more and more to landscapes and portraits.

Between 1978 and 1982, he attended art school in Toronto. And though he hailed from the small community of Fort Good Hope, Mountain thrived in the city.

"I loved it there," he said.

"I loved the pace of the city. I found that being in an art community -- it's the only way to learn about theories and equipment."

Yet Mountain says that none of his artwork is alien to his culture. One of the reason for that is he recognizes that young people "are always walking in your footsteps."

"You have to be true to yourself," he says.

"You have to learn your own culture and values. You can't assume another cultural identity. It's not good. It's possible, but not recommended."

Mountain admits to taking a lot of risks with his work.

"But it's a progression based on real places and real people but the way it is expressed comes out in a very individualistic style. I haven't consciously tried to formulate a new style. If it's there, it will come out. You produce a body of work and somewhere in there you'll catch on to what's there."

Words to live by.