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LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
The diverse variety of media used by artists in the Deh Cho is evident in the newest exhibition at the OSC Gallery.

Artist Joseph Purcell holds an acrylic on canvas piece entitled Simpson Encounter. Purcell is one of eight artists featured in the new Aurora Boreawesome exhibition at the OSC Gallery in Fort Simpson. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Acrylics on canvas, beads on moosehide, porcupine quills on birchbark, pencil on paper and ink on photo paper all share a space and interact in Aurora Boreawesome, the newest offering at the Open Sky Creative Society's gallery in Fort Simpson. The reception for the exhibition drew 33 people into the gallery on April 5.

The show is a nice way to involve the community and display the talent within it, said Jackie Zinger, who has four photographs featured in the exhibition.

Hung together by the entrance, Zinger's photos show the morning light through ice on the Mackenzie River, a rainbow cutting through a darkened sky behind the arbour, a brilliant sunset with float planes and the Northern lights dancing over the Papal site. Zinger said getting the images is a lot about waiting for the right light and then knowing where to go in the village to enhance it.

When Zinger saw the rainbow after a storm last summer, she said she thought it would be neat to capture it with the arbour, which is symbolic of the community. Similarly, when Zinger saw the orange-pink glow from a sunset that was cutting across the sky during her first summer here, she knew she had to photograph it.

"It was probably one of the nicest sunsets I've seen in Fort Simpson," she said.

This is the first time Zinger has participated in one of the group Deh Cho artist shows put on by the gallery. Joseph Purcell, who's originally from Grand Desert, N.S., has been a part of the group shows before. This time, Purcell contributed five acrylic on mylar – a type of plastic – paintings and one acrylic on canvas.

Purcell painted the canvas piece called Simpson Encounter in the village between Feb. 27 and March 27. The painting includes a fantastically coloured fish and a loon set amongst burning bulrushes and greenery.

You don't see many real loons in Fort Simpson but you see lots of images of them, he said. Purcell said he tries to incorporate icons present where he is into his works.

In contrast to Purcell's paintings, in which almost every inch is filled with details, the works by Michael Blyth on the adjoining wall have an abundance of white space. Blyth sorted through his sketch books to look for pieces for the exhibition, choosing groups of mixed-media drawings that were either related to each other thematically or were part of a progression.

One of the chosen groups involves minutely detailed trees growing out of different substrates with elaborate root systems. A second group of drawings combines together aspects of comic books and street art with Blyth's landscape techniques. The result is robot-like tree stump creatures with roots like tendrils.

Looking at the variety of works in the show, Blyth said the exhibition, despite being composed of different artists, has a thematic cohesiveness. Aurora Boreawesome is on display until May 2.

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