Yukon Artist Niki Parry has a collection of original works on display at Baked Café during the month of July
Niki Parry always had a creative itch. The Yukon artist has tried all kinds of different creative endeavours—from jewelry-making, to quilting, to sketching—but it was when she was on leave from her day job in 2017 that she came across a style of painting using fluid acrylic paint, and she fell in love with it.
“It’s an interesting medium,” she said. “You can use all sorts of colourful paint, you can bring it together, and it just has this dynamic flow that just spoke to me.”
In all her various creative projects over the years, Parry says that colour is what she’s most been drawn to. Since discovering her preferred style of painting, she can hardly keep herself from spending all of her spare time doing it.
“It’s such a lovely way to spend my time,” she said. “I just keep going with it.”
Sometimes, Parry will paint based off of a photo, and other times just start to create based on whatever colours she is feeling that day. She’s drawn mostly to bright rainbow and sunset colours that show in a lot of her work, as muted tones don’t do the same thing for her.
“I use a lot of paint in my process,” she explained. “I’ll mix up all the different colours, and then once I have all the paint ready to go, I pour it on as opposed to using the brush or anything like that. It goes on fluid, and once it goes on the canvas, I’ll mix it using brushes, popsicle sticks, pallet knives and gravity. Sometimes I do it in layers, depending on what kind of look I’m going for.”
Parry’s pieces have to lay completely flat to dry, which can take 24 to 48 hours, depending on the size of the piece. Parry makes the final decisions regarding composition and layout after the first phase of drying, as it’s a process she can’t completely control, then finishes the piece with paint brushes..
Since June, Parry has had her work displayed at Baked Café, in Whitehorse, where it will be up until the end of July. She’s sold a couple of the pieces she’ll be swapping out for newer ones, and she’s happy the community is able to see and appreciate her art as they pass through or sit down for a coffee.
Since it’s tourism season in the Yukon, Parry wanted to create pieces that represented the beauty of the territory. Some of the pieces are inspired by the lakes and the feeling of summer in the Yukon.
“We have such amazing skies, and our landscapes are so great,” she said. “I try and capture the moving element from the skies and the water, together, to capture that feeling.”
Other pieces on display have cabins, like you’d see around the Yukon, with northern lights and midnight-sun-inspired backdrops. Because she tried so many different art styles before finding her creative calling, Parry offers some advice to artists who might still be searching for their preferred craft.
“Just try everything,” she said. “Try different mediums and all different creative outlets, and when you find something you can’t put down, that’s where you want to invest your time and develop.”
To see more of Parry’s art, visit nikiparry.com
