Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Dating from 1960, The Enchanted Owl is one of the first prints
created by the Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak.
A traditional Inuk woman, Ashevak was introduced to printmaking
when she left a nomadic camp life to settle in Cape Dorset in Canada’s North.
She joined the West Baffin Island Print Co-operative and learned to work
with a team of stone-cutters and printmakers to bring her drawings to life.
The owl is one of Ashevak’s favourite subjects.
Notice its crisp, flowing lines, the whimsical feathers
and the bold contrast of the colourful design against the white paper.
To create The Enchanted Owl, the design was transferred to a block of stone.
Next a stone-cutter chipped away all the areas where no ink should go.
Then, various colours of ink were applied to the flat surfaces that remained.
Finally, a sheet of paper was laid over the stone and the print was pulled.
50 prints were made of Ashevak’s The Enchanted Owl.
Half were printed in black, blue and red inks, the other half in black, blue and green inks.
As the prints were pulled, the colours began to blend and change slightly
from print to print, making each a unique masterpiece.