Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Royal Oak (screenprint)







The Royal Oak (screenprint)

This is one of the 6 new screen prints I created especially for my Wunderkabinett solo show a couple of week-ends ago.

This year I became involved with Simon Costin's Museum of British Folklore, and this design was created with that in mind. I have always been fascinated by pub signs, and how they record the vagueries, alignments, beliefs and appetites of society throughout history. The Royal Oak, still a popular tavern name to this day, more than anything else says 'Down with Puritanism' and the need to control, after the sour dry years of the Cromwell's Commonwealth when theatre, colour, music and even Christmas were banned. Posterity dubs Charles II the 'Merrie Monarch' in contrast to that prior austerity, but here, as yet uncrowned and furtively concealed within the Boscobel Oak, he seems a little anxious as Roundheads sweep the country looking for him.

The print measures 29.7 cm wide by 42 cm deep (A3), and is printed in 2 colours in a limited edition of 50. He is available to buy at £45 (a snip), plus Postage & Packing, from my Etsy shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop/PaulBommer - along with many other treasures!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

God, you make 2 colour look sickeningly easy!!
Love it! great leaves, great grass... and they're just the 'filler!.... nice job. If i ever make decent pots, you're drawing on one!!

zoe said...

oh, what a clever print! i didn't know the story :)
curious, i had never thought of bars being that way (well, they generally aren't here, in my defense :)