Tuesday, February 7, 2023

World Inspired Landscapes: Guinea

Guinea is a Western African country on the coast and surrounding Senegal. Conakry is the main city, and is sometimes added to the name of the country, Guinea-Conakry to distinguish from the nearby Guinea -Bissau and Equatorial Guinea. Apparently Guinea was a regional name that many countries adopted into their names. As I research African countries there are many similarities to the landscapes including low lying mountain ranges, iron oxide earth, tall balboa trees, vast deforested agricultural land, jungles, and coastal beach scenes that could just as well be in the Caribbean. There was not much material to go on for Guinea, but there were some interesting photos of women fishing using nets. It turns out that many people use mosquito nets to fish. The mosquito nets were given to them by international aid organizations to help prevent the spread of malaria, however, with billions of nets and a need for food, the people adapted the use of these nets for fishing. The women in the pictures also had jugs and buckets balanced on their heads as they did this, perhaps to keep the fish fresh on the way home. 

Another inspiration for this design was a famous print by Hiroshige showing a fishing net being tossed into a lake. You can see the print in this link. Figures have not shown up too often in my world inspired landscape series although there have been giraffes and crabs!

World Inspired Landscapes: Guinea (Republic of Guinea), watercolour 10 x 11" cold press, February 2023 (No. 3367)

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