Fanny Arngnakik's contribution to the Baker Lake print program was small but distinctive. She produced only four known prints, beginning with an experimental work in 1965 and ending with her final print in 1971. She was married to Barnabus Arnasungaaq (see Lot 9), and belonged to a family deeply engaged in the arts. Her mother, Martha Ittuluka'naaq, brothers Mathew Aqigaaq (see Lot 7) and David Ikutaaq, and sister, Ada Eyetoaq, were all artists.

Arngnakik's three prints in the Qamani'tuaq catalogues, including the present work, are devoted to domestic life and the activities of women. Here, the subject is treated with a pleasing simplicity, the woman, her ulu, and her catch reduced to a few strongly defined shapes and softly shifting fields of colour.

The stencil technique is used here to particularly beautiful effect. Rather than laying down a uniform field of colour, the pigment varies in density across the woman's body, gathering darkly around the edges before softening into a paler, mottled centre. The skin of the yellow fish is a softer passage, while its essential shape is sharply defined, creating a pleasing contrast between the diffuse and the emphatic.

ND