Arctic Quest - the group of 25 professional artists who went on the journey - returned Aug. 4 from a 12-day adventure in Canada's High Arctic. Their first in a series of exhibitions showing what they've captured opens tomorrow at Oakville's Win Henstock Gallery.

"It was just incredible to go and experience history and feel what the early explorers felt more than 150 years ago," said Linda Mackey, who, with Kathy Haycock, conceived the idea for Arctic Quest. "The trip was absolutely amazing."

The group, comprised mainly of artists from the Greater Toronto Area, captured the scenery aboard the cruise ship Akademik Ioffe, which took off from Iqualuit, the capital of Nunavut. They traveled up the east coast of Baffin Island towards Greenland, where they made three stops, then headed back to Canada, cruising through the Northwest Passage and making stops at historical sites like Beechy Island along the way.

"Every morning it was amazing, you didn't think it could get any better than yesterday," said contributing artist and exhibition coordinator, Lynn Soehner. "Then you looked out and it was, 'Oh my God,' icebergs as big as football fields, seals, walrus, orca whales, polar bears."

Artists either took pictures to work from later on, or painted on location on the boat. The 24-hour-a-day sunlight, wildlife and natural scenery is represented in many of the works now hanging at Win Henstock.

"The show is really about our experience," said Soehner. "We were all on the same boat, but it really is a varied experience with a lot of different interpretations."

For some, like Mackey, the history and the chance to see parts of the country most Canadians aren't aware of was the most important part of the trip.

"It's like you're walking through a live museum there - everything is pretty well untouched," she said, adding you'll still find remnants from the mid 1800s in the High Arctic.

Artists on the Arctic Quest trip, she added, were selected not only for their artistic talent, but also for their appreciation of the Arctic and its history.

In 1906, after a few failed expeditions by several groups to open Canada's Northwest Passage to allow for trade, Amundsen - after years of studying and living in an Inuit community to learn how to survive the conditions - eventually found his way and opened it up.

"It was because of the Canadian Inuit that he was able to succeed," said Mackey, who added this part of Canadian history isn't as recognized or celebrated as it should be.

"To go and experience some of Canadian history firsthand was amazing. That's why I felt it was an incredible secret to share with other artists."

Mackey met Haycock in 2002 on Baffin Island, and the pair started brainstorming about Arctic Quest.

Painting Canada's Arctic is in the Haycock genes, as her late father, Maurice, traveled there many times to paint its scenes along with A.Y. Jackson of the famed Group of Seven.

While Arctic Quest's trip was inspired by the 100th anniversary of the navigation of the Northwest passage, it's also a celebration of those artists who captured Canada's North in the early expeditions, including Lawren Harris, Fred Varley and Jackson of the Group of Seven, as well as more recent trips by Doris McCarthy and Maurice Haycock.

Of that group of esteemed Arctic painters, Jackson and McCarthy's works will be on display at Win Henstock, and three of Haycock's paintings will be for sale.

The Arctic Quest Painting Exhibition opens Saturday, Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. at Win Henstock Gallery, 334 Lakeshore Rd. E., and runs until Sept. 22.

For more on Arctic Quest, visit www.nwp100.com