About "Canada by Choice"

This is an Artistic Cartography piece that was commissioned by a close friend of mine for his sister’s 50th birthday gift.  Artistic Cartography is a style that I have done for several years now and involves the use of maps, topographical, nautical or other and a relative subject matter. This style lends itself well to my wildlife conservation goals as it allows me to create artworks that solidify the fact that we need to protect our environment if we wish to protect our endangered species. It also works extremely well for nautical art.

This particular piece utilizes an antique map ( 1861 ) of the Northern Atlantic to show the historic immigration of family from Italy to Canada in the 1950’s. The antique map was purchased by the artist and a Giclee print was produced to ensure that the original map was not altered. The artwork was then done directly on the Giclée using it as my paper. The ship, Queen Frederica was the ship that my friend’s father travelled to Canada on. 

The ship is done in graphite with the detailed accent work done in Staedtler Marker and the ocean wave work being highlighted with white acrylic paint. It creates a true mixed medium piece. The goal is to let the map fall back into the finished piece and the artwork come forward to help create the illusion of depth and three dimensional space.

Stuart Arnett
Wildlife Conservation Artist