Pencil artist sketches history
Portraits of the North artist to release second book focused on far North
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
WINNIPEG/KIVALLIQ
A work of art 20 years in the making was unveiled at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on June 14 with the official book release of Gerald Kuehl's Portraits of the North.
As of June 23, the book was perched at the number-one position on the McNally Robinson hard cover, non-fiction best-seller list.
Portraits of the North was born in 1997 when Kuehl, a self-taught pencil artist, was on a trip to northern Manitoba and became fascinated by the stories of the individuals he met.
Kuehl said he noticed people had endured so much in their struggle to survive in the harsh northern environment that their stories were often etched on their faces through lines and scars â•„ they even affected the expressions they wore. He became determined to capture that spirit and vitality through pencil portraiture and a 20-year project was born.
Kuehl will be travelling to promote his book and speak with distributors at the Frankfurt, Germany, Book Fair this October. The Frankfurt fair is the largest book fair in the world, featuring more than 7,000 exhibitors from 130 countries.
Kuehl will also be attending the London, England, Book Fair in April, which is the largest English book fair in the world.
The amicable artist is well-known in the Kivalliq region, having produced pencil portraits of many elders across the region. The Portraits of the North collection of drawings includes the First Nations groups of Cree, Ojibway, Oji-Cree, Dene and the Metis people.
Kuehl already has his gaze firmly fixed on another big moment in his career, because a second book, Portraits of the Far North (The Inuit Collection), is also scheduled for release.
He said he will be making another very special trip to promote that second book.
"I will be doing the Paris, France, Book Fair in 2019 to promote the second book because the Parisians are crazy about Canada's Inuit," said Kuehl.
"I'll be promoting both books in Paris, of course, but the number-one reason I'll be there is the Inuit book.
"The first book, Portraits of the North, contains 106 stories and drawings of Metis and First Nations, while book two, Portraits of the Far North, will have about 105 short biographies and drawings of elders from the seven communities of the Kivalliq region."
Kuehl said the first book was being well received; he promised the second, which he hopes to release in June 2018, would be "spectacular."
He said the Manitoba Inuit Association executive director Rachel Dutton suggested he hold a book release for it in Rankin Inlet, as well as the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
"In my ideal world, we'll do a book launch in Rankin and ╉ since one-third of the elders in the second book are from Baker Lake ╉ it makes perfect sense to hold one in Baker, as well, so that might happen too," he said.
"I also have a good dozen portraits that have never been handed out from Coral Harbour, Rankin and a few other communities, as well as six from Baker Lake, so I'd also be able to do a portrait unveiling for those individuals.
"In Baker, it sure would be nice to add these six portraits to the 27 that are already hanging there."
