This deceptively simple drawing of the view from inside an airplane is a classic example of Itee Pootoogook’s genius. He was able to interpret the details of a photograph so masterfully that the image became merely a starting point for a beautiful drawing. Simple gradations of pastel colours indicate the snow-covered land giving way to the distant horizon and cloud-filled sky. The diagonal of the plane’s wing is used as a counterpoint to the vast, seemingly endless Arctic landscape.

Born in Kimmirut (Lake Harbour), Itee moved to Kinngait with his family as a child. Although he pursued several activities, including creating animation for an award-winning National Film Board film in 1973 [1], it was only later in life that he began drawing. As with this work, his inspiration often came from photos, either taken by himself or his studio colleagues. There is a stillness and eternal quality found in Itee’s drawings, one which, as Ingo Hessel has pointed out, is, “more reminiscent of the works of the southern Canadian artist Christopher Pratt than any of Itee’s peers ...” [2].

1. Itee Pootoogook et al, Animation from Cape Dorset, NFB, 1973

2. Ingo Hessel, “The World Discovers ‘Eskimos’”, Inuit Modern, 2010, p. 192