Christmas is the perfect time to cheer up family and friends with a letter or card sent in the post. To give your mail a festive feel, Latvijas Pasts (Latvian Post) has issued stamps designed by illustrator Robert Rūrāns this year. His vibrant drawings combine religious motifs with much-loved holiday traditions to present a single story about Christmas celebrations among the family in three festive designs.
Roberts Rūrāns explains that he created the illustrations for the Latvijas Pasts Christmas series by thinking about each stamp individually and as a whole that tells a little story of a Latvian family celebrating. The narrative can be followed by the nominal value of the stamps, starting with the least expensive stamp and ending with the most expensive one. «The first stamp shows a family preparing for the festive season, decorating a Christmas tree. The next one shows the central motif of the holiday — the adoration of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, which is an interpretation of the Three Wise Men, who follow the star that leads them to Christ. This scene could be compared to going to church on Christmas Eve. Finally, the third stamp shows the gift giving, which we do after church and the festive meal. There is a family member dressed up as Santa giving out presents while the whole family watches you recite a poem in front of the tree,» Roberts elaborates.
The author believes that a stamp is like a miniature work of art, where beauty and functionality interact. The images of the festive story are enclosed by decorative frames, which help to separate and highlight the necessary information on the stamp while serving as a unifying element that gives the stamps an additional sense of fun. All the drawings are hand-crafted, using acrylic paints to paint even the finest details. They were then digitalised, text was added, and the final layout was created.
Christmas stamps designed by Robert Rūrāns are available in the Latvijas Pasts online shop and in post offices.
Viedokļi