Inuvik resident Sehrish Khan’s artwork has been chosen to appear on the front cover of Northwestel’s 2024 phone directory, the company said on Friday.
A family trip to Tuktoyaktuk gave Khan the inspiration for “The Ocean’s Touch,” which shows two people picking pebbles next to a scenic view of the Arctic Ocean.
Khan moved to Inuvik from Ontario with her family last year. She says the people in the painting are her daughters, Ysabel and Ayleen, who were excited to “finally go to an ocean” after spending most of their time around Ontario’s lakes.
“When we initially moved here, Tuktoyaktuk was one of the biggest attractions … with the kids, travelling on the Dempster Highway was not easy. But the place was really nice. The place was very beautiful. It was amazing,” Khan told Cabin Radio.
Khan prefers painting the traditional way, though being new to the North meant ordering in art supplies that would incur high transport costs. To meet the contest’s deadline, she decided to make a digital painting.
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“I didn’t expect to win because a lot of the [winning] paintings in the past were different. If you saw them, you could really tell that they’re from the North. They would either have a polar bear or a moose or northern lights. That’s what I wanted to do as well, but I had never done that before,” she said.
“I’ve always done colourful, brighter paintings of people, but in an abstract way. So when I was thinking about [what to create], I chose us – and I could relate to that.”
Artistic skills run in Khan’s family. Growing up, she was surrounded by her mother’s paintings in the house. Years later, while studying in the United States, Khan’s host happened to be an art teacher.
“She taught me a lot of techniques. I used to enjoy painting murals with her, making quilts, making sculptures, ceramics… that’s what really, really got me interested,” she said.
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Being a mother of two, Khan finds it hard to make time for art. However, her younger daughter – “obsessed with sketching and drawing” – is following in her footsteps, and that keeps her in touch with her passion.
Khan received her box of art supplies a few days ago and now will work with her kids to create signs with cartoon characters to accompany a poster of The Ocean’s Touch in their room.
On top of having her art featured on the cover, she was awarded $5,000. Alongside Khan, Nooks Lindell of Arviat in Nunavut also won prize money for his piece, Wheeling.
According to Northwestel, phone directories have featured northern artists’ works since 1979.
Khan said she is trying to document her journey on Instagram. You can email her if you have inquiries about her work.
