Friday, March 22, 2013

PEI

PEI

The symbols of Prince Edward Island, its provincial bird, the blue jay and its tree, the red oak cover the hand-carved map of PEI in this linocut. The block was inked 'à la poupée' (with different colours, reds, blues and black, in different areas) and printed by hand on lovely Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. Each print is 23.5 cm by 31.8 cm (9.25" by 12.5"). The print is one of a variable edition of eight.

So, I've only got NWT to go! RJH, like a good Maritimer advocated for PEI to be printed before Nunavut, but I was really concerned about how to fit an animal into the small shape of the province... and no, increasing the scale of the island wasn't the answer, since the relative scales matter. But, in the end, it wasn't too hard... the real trick was conceiving of how much of each the blue jay and the red oak were needed in order to be recognized. Luckily, oaks are perhaps most easily recognized by their leaves. I could have gone for a less contrasting colour scheme, but perhaps inspired by the name 'red oak' I portrayed the tree in autumn.

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