Limited Edition Signed Print: 278/1500

Published in 1980 SOLD OUT EDITION

Image Size:  18.125”w x 25”h

Selling Price:  $100.00

Artist’s Comments:

If you're not creating and doing something new each time, then you're in the wrong business. At least, that’s what I believe about this business of being an artist. And more than most, I think "Orca" is a print that captures the essence of that belief. "Orca" is really a combination of three distinctly different media- silk screening, hand-drawn lithography and embossing, the latter being particularly unique. The idea started with doing a whale print. I've done whales before, of course, but Orcin us orca, the killer whale, is something different. It may grow to a length of20feet or so, and usually hunts in packs.  For that reason, the Eskimos call these whales "sea wolves." They're very dangerous to man, and are the only whales that will prey on other mammals; they attack seals, porpoises, squid, walrus, penguins-even other whales. Most whales have a gentle disposition, belied by their huge size, but the "killer" more than compensates for other members of the species.  Maybe because orca is so different, then, I felt challenged to do something different. I wanted a three-dimensional effect, and so we layered materials together. I used a lithography pencil, not my usual pen and ink, for the detailing on the three whales, and they're about as delicate as you can get with that kind of pencil. The color was injected through five separate screenings. Then, to heighten the feeling of dimension, the glacier was embossed in six separate layers.  I'm a designer, and I've always been interested in contrasting very bold shapes with little bitty details. I want to bring nature into the realm of contemporary art. For me, "Orca" is doing something new.

About the Artist:  Peter Parnall became interested in the land and its creatures as a boy.  His early memories are of stagecoach stops in the Mojave Desert and Texas’ Big Bend country.  Here wild things are children’s playmates – coyotes, lizards.  Peter and his friends exchanged rattlesnake rattles instead of baseball cards.   Parnall’s special fascination is with animal behavior.  He has raised and studied dozens of wild creatures – hawks, owls, and raccoons.  And so it is that his drawings portray not only the look of bird or beast, but the animal’s essential nature – shy, bold, predatory, secretive.

Peter Parnall has illustrated over 50 books, some of which he has also authored, and has won many awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts.  His drawings are described as striking, stunning, attention riveting.  Their special nature resides in the artist’s uncanny ability to portray the forest world as the birds and animals themselves might experience it.  The viewer suddenly knows how it feels to be a hunter, how it feels to be hunted, and is led into a deeper understanding of the inexorable world of nature.