Canadian Landscape Series - Painting 10 of 13: Inukshuk, Nunavut

This is a post about Inukshuk, Nunavut - 1 of 13 paintings in my 2024 Canadian Landscape series. If you would like to read about the series as a whole, you can find that post here. ​

Inukshuk, Nunavut

Inukshuk, Nunavut (2024) - part of my Canadian Landscape series

​Inukshuk, Nunavut was the tenth painting I completed from my Canadian Landscape series. It was completed in June 2024. My goal for this series was to capture the essence of each province and territory in a painting. 

​Like most Canadians, Nunavut is a bit of a mystery to me. ​It is the newest territory in Canada – established only in 1999. It is also an incredibly remote territory that can only be reached by air (there are no roads to Nunavut!). 

Photo Credit: Raymond Labrecque

Photo Credit: Raymond Labrecque

When I think of Nunavut, I think of the stereotypical things: snow, remoteness, inukshuks, and Indigenous culture. 
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As I’ve worked through this series, I have had to do extensive research about each province and territory, and I have learned a lot. Nunavut is home to some truly spectacular landscapes and unique mountain formations. 
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One obstacle I faced was that, compared to the other provinces and territories, Nunavut has significantly less reference photos available online. This made it difficult to gleam what the "essence" of Nunavut is. 

For the bones of my Nunavut painting, I made a composite sketch using two reference photos taken by Raymond Labrecque from the Facebook Group: Landscape Reference Photos for Artists. 

I chose to stick with a non-specific winter scene behind an inukshuk for this painting. The word “inukshuk” means “in the likeness of a human”. The Inuit use these stone markers throughout their vast Arctic landscape to guide travelers, warn of danger, and mark places of importance. 

​The main challenge I faced with my Nunavut painting was the long break I took in between starting and finishing it. I started my Nunavut painting in July 2023 and then took an 8 month long break from this series. I didn't finish the painting until June 2024 (almost an entire year after starting it). It was difficult for me to find my flow again after this long break.

When I started this painting in 2023, I wanted to try something new in Nunavut's sky - a background of gradient blues with thin lines of color on top. This is how it sat for 8 months.

​When I came back to this painting in 2024, I didn't like the sky. I didn't think it looked "Nunavut" enough. I tried a new different fixes before starting over entirely with a bolder palette that was more consistent with the rest of this series. After changing the sky, the rest of the painting came together relatively effortlessly. 

Inukshuk, Nunavut (2024)

​The next painting I completed from this series was Grain Elevator, Saskatchewan.

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