Despite the brevity of his career, Itee Pootoogook’s work is rightly recognized for the skilled talent within it. His scenes were created from a combination of photographs, his own memory, and a vivid imagination, culminating in him artfully rendering the seemingly mundane details of a landscape with precision. Add to this a personal interest in the local architectural forms around him, and the sense of space of his home, many of his drawings emphasize the vast, open horizon that separates the land from the sky, often in a boldly minimalist compositional style. Summer Camp is a gently layered work, with the summer canvas tent up front, the rocks leading to the coastline, and the water behind. Despite the vertical orientation, the sky opens the work and relieves any sense of being cramped into the composition. There is a sense of peace and calm that just emanates from the work with every pencil mark.

For a similar work, see Summer Camp, illustrated in Nancy Campbell, Itee Pootoogook: Hymns to the Silence, (Toronto: Goose Lane Editions / Kleinburg: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2019), p. 82