Robbie CraigYellowknife, Northwest TerritoriesPainter Robbie Craig is a Canadian painter working out of his studio in Yellowknife, NWT. Originally from Barrie, Ontario, Robbie has made his home in the North with his wife and their two children stating he’s finally found ‘home’. Coming from a long lineage of artists on both sides of his family: his paternal great-grandfather and grandfather were “hobbyists” of art who would often paint landscapes and portraits. His maternal grandmother was an acrylic painter who worked with different creative mediums. Robbie’s mother, a creative watercolour artist, is credited with being Craig’s biggest inspiration as to what led him to becoming an artist. Using acrylic mediums, Robbie says his art is a mixture of impressionism, abstraction and slight surrealism. He calls his works graphic impressionism. Bold lines and vibrant ‘shapes of colour’ are very important to Robbie though he is a colour blind artist. Thom Thompson, the Group of 7 and Ted Harrison he names as his artistic influences. Robbie’s journey as an artist began in his youth. In high school he loved both arts and sports albeit art eventually took back seat to after school workouts, football and rugby practice. After high school Craig attended the University of Western Ontario and studied health science. Later, he and his then-girlfriend attended teacher’s college in New Zealand. With degrees in hand they applied for teaching jobs in Canada and landed in Wekweètì (or “Snare Lake”), NWT in 2006. Within his first year, Craig began to sketch landscapes and Northern animals. Though it had been a long time since Craig had ‘created something from nothing’ - a feeling he called addicting - he recalls being inspired by the beauty of the rugged Northern landscape. Undecided in pursuing art as a career - Craig won the Northwestel Directory Cover Art Competition. His art was featured on the phone books in the Northwest Territories for a year. This was the turning point for him. Craig says “he wasn’t ready” for what came next – art agents, gallery openings, social media platforms and people interested in buying his works. So he returned to his roots and traveled to their family cottage in Ontario that summer and learned about paint mixing, colour theory, composition, the history of art and what type of artist he wanted to be.