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I stand on the upper deck of the Port McNeill ferry as it approaches Alert Bay, a former cannery village beloved by iconic Canadian painter and author Emily Carr. Verdant mountains puncture the clear-blue sky above, while white foam sparkles on breaking waves below. It's no wonder this picturesque island community in B.C.'s Queen Charlotte Strait inspired Carr's canvases, more than 100 of which make up a retrospective opening this weekend at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Once on shore, my husband, Eric, and I make for the Namgis Burial Grounds, where greying totem poles mark souls who have passed. Newer ones, carved in the 1990s, honour the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation's mythic figures, such as Great Halibut Man, as well as the unmarked graves of tribe members buried beneath the road on which we're standing. Visitors aren't permitted on the site -- instead, we peer at the poles from the road, marvelling at their artistry, wondering about the stories they tell.

My Anglo-Saxon nature yearns to repair and preserve the older artwork. The slanting poles seem to appeal for help as I gaze at wingless Thunderbirds and faded paint. But I realize their creators would have accepted this decay, since it bears silent witness to the fleeting time we share on Earth. Carr must have understood this when she painted Alert Bay, Mortuary Boxes in 1908.

Later, strolling the boardwalks of Alert Bay's Ecological Park, we step into Carr's landscapes of towering cedars, captured in works such as Wood Interior and Juice of Life. Further exploration takes us through a flooded forest, where bald eagles perch on skeletal branches. Swirls in tree trunks echo the stylized natural forms we see later, painted by Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation artists on their Big House, a reconstruction of a ceremonial building used for potlatches.

Carr also embraced animist themes in Roots, and various other works, on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery's Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon exhibit, which opens on Saturday. The most fascinating part of the installation reconstructs the 1927 Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art Native and Modern at Ottawa's National Gallery, which juxtaposed the work of artists such as Carr, A.Y. Jackson, Edwin Holgate and Anne Savage with traditional Haida, Tsimshian and Kwakwaka'wakw masks, house posts, blankets and totem poles.

In addition to the 100-plus paintings by Carr, dozens of her hooked rugs, pottery items and cartoons will be on display.

Eric and I weren't around in 1927, but for more than two decades we have conducted our own explorations of Carr's work by visiting the urban and wilderness destinations she lived in, visited or painted.

In Victoria, we delved into Carr's predictable, middle-class Victorian upbringing through the museum exhibits at Carr House -- and marvelled at how she left it all behind.

In 1907, cultural tourism was all the rage, and so it wasn't unusual for Carr to take a boat trip from Vancouver to Alaska that year. But the voyage changed her life. Later, she travelled solo, and with some difficulty, into remote aboriginal communities such as Alert Bay, Skidegate and villages along the Skeena River, where she sometimes won friendship, and often respect.

Around the corner from Carr House, I discovered the House of All Sorts, a private residence that Carr built in 1913 as a rooming house. The nearby James Bay Inn has remained a hotel -- Carr spent her final days there before her death in March, 1945. A 15-minute walk will take you to her grave site in the Ross Bay Cemetery. (On Oct. 8, take the annual Emily Carr tour.)

I adore wandering the bluffs and rocky coastline of Victoria's Beacon Hill Park, a favourite haunt of Carr's. I've strolled there with my father-in-law, who grew up in the area and recounts tales of "seeing Emily" painting on the bluffs. And I've read Carr's stories of pushing her pram -- containing Woo, her monkey -- around the park.

My husband and I have also sailed up the Inland Passage from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert, a voyage reminiscent of Carr's 1907 Alaska trip. I stood on the ferry deck in drifting mists, watching the wall of the rain forest shimmer and dance; I've spied bald eagles and scanned for killer whales, creatures that figure prominently in West Coast art. And from Prince Rupert, during our honeymoon, we ventured inland to K'san, a reconstructed Gitksan village, complete with long houses and totem poles.

Today, we look forward to taking the ferry from Prince Rupert to Haida Gwaii, to visit Yan, Tow Hill and Massett, villages Carr painted. And I'm keen to see Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. Accessed only by boat and local guide, this is my next adventure-in-waiting.

Who knows? Perhaps after viewing the new Vancouver Art Gallery exhibit, you'll commence a lifelong voyage of discovery, just as Carr did.

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Pack your bags

GETTING THERE

For more information on taking the ferry from Port McNeill to Alert Bay, or from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert (and from there to Haida Gwaii), visit http://www.bcferries.com.

THINGS TO DO

Vancouver Art Gallery: 750 Hornby St.; 604-662-4719; http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca. Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon travels to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto from Feb. 24 to May 20, and to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary from Oct. 26, 2007, to January, 2008.

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (http://www.aggv.bc.ca) and the Royal B.C. Museum (http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca) have more of Carr's works on permanent exhibit.

Ross Bay Cemetery: For information on the Oct. 8 Emily Carr Tour, call 250-598-8870 or visit http://www.oldcem.bc.ca. It costs $5 a person and lasts about one hour.

Beacon Hill Park: http://www.friendsofbeaconhillpark.ca/index.htm.

Carr House: 207 Government St., Victoria; emilycarr.com/main.html.

U'mista Cultural Centre: Front Street, Alert Bay, B.C.; umista.ca. Houses a collection of potlatch artifacts.

House of All Sorts: 646 Simcoe St., Victoria; www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/hhistory/carr1.html.

MORE IN FORMATION

Tourism B.C.: http://www.hellobc.com.

Northern B.C. tourism:

http://www.northernbctourism.com.

Vancouver Island Tourism:

www.vancouverisland.travel.

Tourism Victoria:

http://www.tourismvictoria.com.