Trépanier’s oil paintings and films are conceived through extensive exploration into some of the most wild and changing places on our planet.
Each artistic expedition brings its own set of challenges, including an arduous trek on Ellesmere Island with a 120lb backpack; enduring hordes of mosquitoes while painting at the edge of a waterfall above the Arctic Circle; and being surrounded by Arctic wolves. Each journey offers deeply inspiring new experiences and vistas for his canvases.
In 2001, Trépanier first began filming his art-fuelled expeditions, leading to five documentaries: A Painter’s Odyssey, Into the Arctic, Into the Arctic II and TrueWild: Kluane. His fifth film, Into the Arctic: Awakening, had its first public screening in Monaco before Prince Albert II.
2017 marked the launch of the INTO THE ARCTIC Exhibition Tour, featuring over 50 oil paintings and 3 films. The tour premiered at the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C, touring across North America and overseas to Monaco, where it opened at HSH Prince Albert II’s Oceanographic Museum. The centrepiece of the collection is the 15 foot wide Great Glacier, one of the largest Arctic landscape paintings in Canada’s history.
In 2019, Cory partnered with Canadian Geographic Education to create the INTO THE ARCTIC Film Trilogy K-12 teachers guide. Through it, Cory’s films are being made available to educators and students nationwide and beyond for free. Seven modules educate and engage about geography, environmental and social sciences, humanities, Indigenous culture, history, survival, and the arts.
In the Fall of 2021, Trépanier is set to launch a coffee table book entitled INTO THE ARCTIC: Painting Canada’s Changing North. The coffee table book will feature almost 100 Arctic paintings, sketches and stories. Moreover, the book will also feature forewords by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and Senator Pat Bovey; and contributions from Arctic friend and outfitter Billy Arnaquq; the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell; Wade Davis; Robert Bateman; John Geiger; Mauri Pelto and include a bio and essay by Todd Wilkinson.
This collection preserves one of the most fragile, and spectacular regions of our planet and shares the wonder of the North, and its people, with others far away.
Trépanier has been featured in media around the globe, and his documentaries broadcast internationally, sharing his passion for the wild places that he explores and paints.
His work — inspired through intimate, awe-filled exploration of wild places near and far — conveys a timely and critical message about the wonder of nature, and fosters a deeper appreciation of our world and contemplation about the impacts we have on it.
Canadian Geographic named Trépanier one of Canada’s Top 100 Living Explorers. He is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and a member of The Explorers Club, receiving the Canadian Chapters highest award, the Stefansson Medal. He is National Champion of the Trans Canada Trail.