ONLEY'S ARCTIC: DIARIES AND PAINTINGS OF THE HIGH ARCTIC. by Onley, Toni. Foreword by George Woodcock - 1989

Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1989. 166 pp, 10 3/4" H. Colour and b&w illustrations - reproductions, photographs, maps. "Toni Onley made his first trip to the High Arctic in 1974 aboard a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent. He returned the following year, this time piloting his small flying boat on a 10,000 kilometre odyssey into the eastern Arctic from Vancouver, B.C. Eleven years later, he and poet Claude Peloquin boarded another coast guard vessel on a voyage to confirm Canada's cultural sovereignty in northern waters. During each of these trips, Onley kept a diary of his daily observations: the unexpected colour, the mysterious quality of the light, the meteoric changes in the weather, the way land and sea and sky converge to tease the eye. The diaries also make many allusions to historical events and environmental concerns, and provide a lively commentary on life abaord ship and in the air. As an artist, Onley found his paintings ready-made in a landscape stripped to its bare essentials. His three trips inspired more than 200 watercolours, prints, oils and pencil drawings, of which 122 are represented here. In these stunning works, Onley exhibits his characteristic skill with a watercolour brush, capturing the fleeting light and shadow and the fragile, vulnerable beauty of the far north." Tiny dent on top edge of front board and a very small dent on the bottom edge. Dust jacket has light edge wrinkling - mainly at top edge, two tiny dents on front hinge.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good+/Very Good. Illus. by Toni Onley..