Painter returns to Arctic to complete project
Seventy-five Into the Arctic paintings will celebrate the North on Canada's 150th birthday
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
KIVALLIQ
Cory Trepanier, a painter travelling from Caledon, Ont., was caught in Rankin Inlet by a combination of weather conditions in the community and a slow ice melt outside Naujaat last week.
He is on his way to document, with paint, photographs and video, a final Northern national park to complete his collection that will ultimately see 75 original paintings depicting a North many dream of but so few can travel to. His project, titled Into the Arctic, began in 2006.
"The project was, initially, going to be a trip in 2006, a trip in 2007, another expedition in 2008 - one film and 30 paintings," said Trepanier over coffee at the Siniktarvik Hotel in Rankin.
"I thought, 'Yeah, we have the whole plan laid out.'"
The North had something else in mind - it would blow his mind.
"The scope of the landscape hit me pretty hard."
This is his fourth expedition ranging between one-and-a-half and two months, and he considers it his last one for this particular project. Reviewing a map last fall, with his previous trips in mind, he realized he was missing a big chunk of the Arctic - the central Arctic. The main purpose for his fourth trip, he says, is to fill in the missing section. He now has just over 50 paintings and two films, which continue to air widely.
Ryan Bray, Parks Canada's only staff photographer and videographer, is travelling with him. Previously, a handful of others of joined him on his journeys and held the camera, including his wife and his brother Carl.
"As an older brother, who had never shot anything, he was surprisingly open to instruction. He did a great job," says Trepanier, adding two others held the camera for the film that would ultimately be nominated in 2013 for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Arts Documentary.
Bray and Trepanier met for the first time, on a recommendation from a friend, in Yellowknife on the way to Aulavik National Park on Banks Island prior to heading east.
"Ryan has a passion for the parks, as well, and the wilderness," says Trepanier. "It's really nice to travel with somebody who has a similar idea, vision and passion for being out there in the places we're going to."
After this expedition, Trepanier will have completed the trek to seven Arctic national parks - missing only the the newly formed Qausuittuq National Park on Bathurst Island. He intends to have a total of 75 paintings and a third Into the Arctic film to complete a trilogy from his travels across the North.
"All of this, in 2017, is coming together as a travelling museum exhibition," says Trepanier.
The travelling exhibit will be part of Canada's 150th birthday, and is intended to celebrate and share the Canadian Arctic with others.
"We have a tour director and currently we have a number of museums in the United States who are coming online to host. And we're right now trying to solidify the rest of the schedule for 2017 and 2018 where all the paintings and films will show people in the south this passionate vision of what the Arctic is like from one person's perspective."
The artist's expedition is possible through the support of a variety of sponsors, people who have bought and believe in his art, arrangements with companies like Sony and Canadian North, and a partnership with Parks Canada.
If the weather and ice allow, Trepanier and Bray will be well into their expedition into Ukkusiksalik National Park outside Naujaat soon.
Trepanier paints as he travels.
"I set up my easel out there. I paint on location," he said. "There's nothing that replaces the experience of trying to soak it all in and capture on the spot."
When he returns home, those paintings, as well as the photographs and video, are transformed into the final pieces of his collection.
Trepanier can also be followed on Facebook and at the Into the Arctic website, where he keeps people tuned into his adventures.
"We're sharing while we're doing it," he said.
"So every night I'm adding to the journal on our website and we're posting images to Facebook whenever we can. We know so few people will get a chance to visit these remote locations."
