Yes, it's artistic, and effective in bringing through some sense of beauty that's linked with canoeing. IIRC his films have won cinematography awards, for Grey Owl (on Temagami) and We Belong To It.
Maybe along similar lines, the art that goes into filming northern landscapes was brought out very well in The Revenant, which deals with suffering to a great extent but also films boreal forests and landscapes in a new way and maybe redefines things with new ways of filming the landscape. There is no canoeing in it but the sense of northern wilderness comes though strongly. Difficult to do from the accounts written about making the film (again IIRC there was some mention of this at the Oscars with Leonardo looking a bit haggard on stage after slogging through all that cold water) and well worth seeing again... I'm just waiting for enough time to pass so that's it's not too recognizable or familiar.