"Coming Home" by Sandra McGurk

"Coming Home" by Canadian artist Sandra McGurk. This painting represents the seal hunt, where all the men left for days, sometimes weeks, to return to their very happy wives and children. 

Relics and Tales is happy to introduce once again, Canadian artist Sandra McGurk. Sandra was born and raised in the Town of Carbonear, Newfoundland, she also lived in Nova Scotia for twenty years and now resides with her husband in Victoria, British Columbia. Sandra's artwork, her carvings and paintings, tell us stories of her childhood growing up with her family in Labrador with the Inuit people, the Nunatukavut (formerly named the Labrador Métis Nation). Sandra very kindly shares with us a few of her art pieces. They are beautiful depictions of Inuit life. I love her paintings!

The following drawings were done by pastel chalk.

 

 

The following fence art pieces were designed to go onto or off a frame that hangs on the panel or can be placed on a wall inside, the frame can be painted the same colour as the fence or wall to make the frame-work disappear and all the individual pieces come off so they can be stored easily. The pieces for the hunter came from Jordan River (Vancouver Island) and the pieces for the lady and baby came from Island View beach (Victoria, B.C.).

The following art pieces are recent soap stone carvings by Sandra. They are delightful and beautifully carved. Thank you Sandra for sharing these with us. We look forward to more of your art work. We will keep up with Sandra here on Relics and Tales and we hope to hear more fascinating tales of her Inuit childhood.

Polar bear with a small child on its back and licking the other little child's face

Two young girls who are throat singing - Inuit custom

Skeleton of a fish which is made up of various Inuit ladies in the sitting or crouching position

Pendant with the face of an Inuit hunter

A whaler inside the belly of a whale fighting to get out

We must not forget to add a few of Sandra's west coast paddles! I have copied and pasted a note from Sandra which I will include here for you to read. Thank you for visiting our website. Michelle

"The paddle with the whales is a carving with an actual 100 yr old whale bone from the shores of Labrador from the old whaling days and the fish have mother of pearl shell embedded in them.  Under the polar bear is a Ulu knife which also contains embedded bone. The other paddle also made from yellow cedar has a painting of the Inuit sun with salmon flying through the waves and on the other side is the Inuit moon with a whale's tail for the evening scene. Shaping and cutting the whale bone took me 8 days. " Sandra

Canadian Artist, Sandra McGurk