Northern Neck Tubes

This artist collaboration was an incredibly fun and colourful one – Niki Parry was the perfect artist to do a neck tube collab with given her use of silhouttes on vibrant beautiful and colourful landscapes.

Whatever you call them – neck tubes, neck gaiters, buffs, neck warmers (and now, sometimes facemasks) they are a staple of year-round outdoor gear and you can never have too many.

We reached out to Niki in September of 2020 to see if she was interesed in working on this idea with YWP. Niki jumped on it and in the following months we started sorting out details of design ideas and applications. 

We sought after Yukon Wildlife Preserve inspiration from the landscape and the animals. 

Two photos inspired Niki especially once we decided what species we wanted to capture. 

Niki Parry is a visual artist working primarily in acrylic paint.  Her artwork represents natural scenes with an element of abstract.  She works with bright vibrant colours and creates dynamic abstract landscapes utilizing silhouettes to create an intense contrast and bring the scene to life.    

Niki has worked with many different types of artwork throughout her life, drawn primarily to the projects where she can focus on and explore colour.  Niki was introduced to fluid acrylics six years ago and fell in love.  The combination of playing with colours in that dynamic fluid form and the process of creating joyful natural landscapes from these images had her hooked.  She has been intensively developing her painting skills and techniques ever since. 

Niki’s artistic process involves two separate components, one for creating the background and the second for hand painting to complete the scene.  The backgrounds are created with fluid acrylic paint, where acrylic paint is diluted with mediums to become runny. 

The paint is then poured onto the canvas, rather than using a brush.  It is then manipulated by moving the canvas around with gravity and other tools to mix the paint on the canvas.   Once the background is completed, then it takes 24 to 48 hours to dry before it can be moved, or else the paint will slide off the canvas.

The secondary process involves working with the background to determine how the final painting will come together.  Generally there is a plan for the background; however, with fluid paint it can be difficult to completely control all the exact details of how it will come together.  This is part of the beauty of the process, the balance between control and working with what presents itself.  The design for the painting is finalized once the background is fully dried, and the final plan for the composition is created.  The final image is created with acrylic brush painting. 

We worked with Corina at Taku Sports Group Inc. and Bula Canada to take Niki’s artwork and make it perfectly fit onto two different neck gaiters – one, a single layer do it all tube featuring two moose and a double layer, reversible fleece perfect for winter warmth featuring of course the northern iconic caribou!

These special neck tubes will be available at the Preserve’s Little Gift Shop. Niki will also have a few on hand at both the Cranberry Fair and the Spruce Bog Christmas Boutique. Both are great events to check out and support local buinesses, and artists like Niki Parry! 

Niki’s goal for creating artwork is to bring a smile to your face and lift your spirits.  She finds a great deal of happiness in creating these images and loves to share her uplifting artwork with others.

We are so grateful  (and pretty darn excited) to have worked with Niki and share her vision. We endeavour to source and support local and share a product that helps you tackle all the outdoor feats while looking extremely fashionable and warm.

From Bula – Stay Warm, Play Longer

Single Layer tube                           $38
Double Layer reversible tube       $44