Notes of crisp red apple and flashes of fragrant flowers is what characterises Ink’s art gin. Though it doesn’t have the distinctive inky violet of the brand’s flagship and namesake, it’s still printed in bold over the label.
Ink is an Australian brand of gin from the Husk Farm Distillery. They host an annual art competition to feature on the labels of their limited edition art gins. My submission for this year is titled “A Fisherman’s Inkling of a Catch at the Orchard”. The theme of the contest is “fusion”, with the clarification from the brief:
- “Cultural Fusion: Art that reflects the blending of different cultures, traditions, and influences, celebrating diversity and multiculturalism.
- Nature and Technology: Works that examine the intersection between the natural world and technological advancements.
- Abstract Fusion: Creative abstract pieces that combine various styles, techniques, and mediums.
- Science and Art: Exploration of scientific concepts through artistic expression, merging analytical and creative thinking.”
Also from the brief is an excerpt from the Ink gin story: “An explorer and an author settled on a farm nestled between the sea, forest and mountains, inspired by nature to handcraft unique natural spirits…”
The main idea for this submission came to me in a flash, a squid that is shaped like an apple tree, calling back to the brand’s name, and to the flavours of the art gin. The rest of the details came together as I was sketching out the thumbnail.
An angler fishes for apples on a squid-shaped tree, nestled on the edge of a forest in front of a rolling, wave-like mountains. This piece explores the artistic style of different cultures, as it’s a fusion of a Western, linocut style line art, with washes of colour inspired by Eastern sumi-e and ukiyo-e. What do these movements have in common? They both rely on ink. It also explores the science of biology and physics. The former in evoking the symmetry of the arms of a squid with the branches of a flowering apple tree, and the latter in the way the short-lived waves of an ocean that form surf mimic the long-lived waves of a tectonic plate that form mountains; nature rhymes at every scale. Tying the two themes together is the inky washes of leaves on the tree as if of a squid in distress. Humorously, a fisherman catching apples undercuts some of the surrealism of the scene, or, more gravely, humans always find a way to exploit nature.
One thing I wish I thought of before inking the work was to split the clubs of the squid’s tentacles into three separate branches. That way it will look more like a tree that resembles a squid, rather than an outright squid-shaped tree with two odd tentacle-like branches.
I didn’t have ink to faithfully replicate the sumi e washes that I was trying to evoke, but I like how it came together in watercolour nonetheless. The leaves are painted with lamp black and pthalo blue, whilst the mountains and trunk use lamp black and ultramarine. Sepia mixed with the latter gives the fisherman his inky green colour. The apples are coloured with bright red and orange water colour pencils, I didn’t want to mix a palette for those small details. Five-petaled apple flowers are added in the end with a white acrylic highlighter.
Is the work a bit on the nose? Maybe. But there is a reason the fisherman is going for the lowest hanging fruit…