Paintings by Alice Park-Spurr range from natural and detailed to mysterious and otherworldly, but a running theme through the entire series is her uninhibited use of striking colours.

The Teslin-based artist explores the whole spectrum with Whispering Colour, an exhibition of her works at the Copper Moon Gallery, this month.

It's been nearly 30 years since Park-Spurr began painting, and she said her style has changed significantly since then, becoming more abstract.

"I needed something fresh to experiment with,” she said about her change in style.

Park-Spurr became a painter "because it's such beautiful surroundings,” she said about her Teslin Lake home.

"It seems to me like I need to express the world around me.”

Park-Spurr interprets her surroundings through exaggerated colour. She sees beyond the limited shades of green, brown and blue of a Yukon summer and paints with vibrant reds, yellows and oranges.

One particularly popular image, Evening Glow, depicts a sunset so intense it appears it will burn right through the canvas.

For inspiration, Park-Spurr doesn't have to look farther than her cabin window. "I just follow whatever my intuition tells me,” she said. "I don't have any fixed ideas.”

Originally from California, Park-Spurr came to the Yukon because of her husband's fascination with Yukon life.

He became interested in the North through reading Calvin Rustrum's novel Paradise Below Zero.

He never used to be interested in the North, never even thought about it, but "after he read that, he wanted to explore,” she said.

Before moving up north, both Park-Spurr and her husband were working for Hewlett Packard. Park-Spurr was a drafts person before she became a circuit board designer.

The two quit their jobs in 1980 and immigrated to Canada, where they began building their cabin on Teslin Lake.

When the cabin was complete, Park-Spurr began searching for something new in her life.

"I had time to think about what I wanted to do with my time, so I started painting,” she said.

In the early days of coming to the Yukon, Park-Spurr and her husband spent a lot of time going back and forth between the territory and California.

She took a water colour and drawing class at a community college in that state and "I was hooked,” she said,

If she was serious about the craft, her husband said, she should continue her artistic education.

So, Park-Spurr attended the California College of Art, and in 1995, received a Master's in Fine Arts after five years of work.

These days, Park-Spurr and her husband live in their cabin all year, but every 18 months they spend a winter in California.

Park-Spurr said she adores Yukon winters, but she does have some trouble with the darkness. A few months in the sunny American state give her a break from long, northern winters.

When she does spend a winter in her Tagish Lake cabin, Park-Spurr puts painting her large, dramatic, acrylic and oil pieces on hold and focuses completely on her tiny water colour paintings.

Because of the chemicals in acrylics and oils, Park-Spurr must open the windows while she paints with them. Even with the wood stove stuffed with burning wood, her studio is too cold in the winter months with the windows open.

Instead, she creates miniature water colour paintings in the comfort of her warm home.

"It's really therapeutic, those water colours,” she said.

Park-Spurr had her opening reception at the gallery on Friday, and Whispering Colour will be on exhibit until July 31.