The Long Lost Lyricism of Walter Joseph Phillips

My dear printmaking colleagues, there are times when you discover a rare treat, and such is the case of Canada’s son Walter Joseph Phillips. I embrace the lyricism of this man’s work and admire greatly his ability to bring light and breath to an inked up piece of paper. Truly, these images sing with life and profess Phillip’s love of his adopted homeland. There is much to see and immerse oneself into his landscapes. They are simultaneously subtle and vibrant, but one feels in his prints the rapture of a sunset or a gentle rain. I hope you enjoy these pieces and share them with your colleagues. They are worth a good, long look…..

Walter Joseph Phillips was an English-born, Canadian artist. He was born in 1884 in Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, England. He first studied art at the Birmingham School of Art, then went to study art in South Africa and Paris. He eventually went to work as a commercial artist in Manchester and London, then from 1908 to 1911 served as art master at the Bishop Woodworth School in Salisbury, England.

In 1913, he and his wife, Gladys(Pitcher), emigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they lived for nearly thirty years. From 1915-18 he began to produce small prints and during the summers he taught art at University of Wisconsin.

During the Great Depression he was one of a handful of artists who made a living off of his work. During 1925-1935 his subject matter mainly dealt with life on the Canadian prairies Manitoba and Northwest Ontario, but in the mid 1940s he switched to making images of the Rocky Mountains.(He asked that his ashes be spread over the Rocky mountains because he loved them so.)

In 1940 he was asked to become Artist in residence at the Banff School of Fine Arts. He moved to Calgary the next year and taught art at the Institute of Technology & Art. In the late 1950s his eyesight began to fail, and he moved to Victoria in 1960 where he dies three years later at the age of 78.

Phillips is famous for his Japanese-style woodcuts. His work was not considered avant garde. In fact, far from it. He was sensitive to his environment and portrayed it with a gentle and poetic vision. There is a calm and peaceful feeling when one looks at his work. His work exemplified the British influence which prevailed in Western Canada at that time. Yet, the Japanese printmaking influence of the 1800s is present with his compositions and a reverence of natural environs, but moreso, a feeling of the work of James McNeill Whistler is deeply felt. The mood is delicately handled. His places are dreamy, sweet and quiet. One can feel at peace in this work, and you can understand how one is drawn to the light as it caresses the land, the trees and water. Phillips has given us city-dwellers, and those unfamiliar with the beauty of Canada, a taste for its tranquility, its majesty.

Permanent Collections:
National Gallery of Canada
The Winnipeg Art Gallery
Glenbow Museum – have an extensive collection and a research archive
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Pavilion Gallery in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park – have the most extensive collection, The Crabb Collection, comprising nearly 850 pieces.
His work was also collected in London, Washington D.C., New Jersey and Japan.

He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Sybil Andrews: Prints in HyperDrive!

Sybil Andrews (1898 –1992) was a British-Canadian printmaker best known for her modernist prints. She has become known for her multi-colored images which break with printmaking traditions. Her compositions gyrate and flip the viewer back and forth like riding a Brahma bull. Shapes and figures are used to help propel the viewer through her compositions much in the same way Cezanne does, only Andrews’ compositions have us on an unending whirly-gig or carousel and we can’t quite figure out where to get off.

Andrews’ works also reflect her society’s growing interest in the modern age, its concern with speed and with technological developments. She chose to portray rhythms of life with the human figure, through images of urban travel and sporting events.

Born in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, Andrews was the third of five children born to Charles and Beatrice Andrews. After completing her high school education, Andrews wanted to study art, but her family couldn’t afford to send her to college. She went and apprenticed as a welder in an airplane factory during WWI, taking art correspondence courses on the side. When the war ended, she returned to her hometown and took up teaching at the Portland House School.

In 1922, Andrews moved to London to attend the Heatherley’s School of Fine Arts. She later took a secretarial position at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art to help pay for more classes. It was there she learned about printmaking. Her first subjects were the farming working class from her hometown, depicting agricultural life and sporting activities.

During WWII, she returned to welding warships. There she met her future husband, Walter Morgan, and in 1947 they got married and moved to Campbell River, British Columbia. Here she achieved a large following which lasted well into the 1950’s. Her work was rediscovered in the 1970’s and she enjoyed a growing and appreciative audience. She died in 1992 leaving a body of nearly 80 prints.

England has a large collection of her work at St. Edmundsbury Borough Council Heritage Service, Bury St Edmunds. This collection includes a number of early pieces produced while she lived in Suffolk. The Glenbow Museum has a major collection (over 1000 works) of Andrews' art, including all her prints, original blocks, sketchbooks, and personal archives.

Honors:
Andrews was elected to the Society of Canadian Painters, Etchers and Engravers in 1951. In 1975 she completed The Banner of St Edmund - a hand embroidered silk on linen, begun in 1930. It is found in the Treasury of St James Cathedral, in Bury St. Edmunds, the town of her birth.

Public Collections:
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
The Bank of New York Mellon Collection, USA (Private Collection)
British Museum, London, UK
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, USA
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Moyse's Hall Museum, Suffolk, UK
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand
Virtual Museum of Canada

This bit of news was sent from fellow inkster Laura Widmer after my initial post…..Sybil Andrews published a book titled "Artist's Kitchen" ISBN: 0 9512047 0 X. It was first published in
the UK in 1985 by RK Hudson with 2nd and 3rd runs in 1990 and 1992
respectively. It is a gem of a book of no-nonsense advice to
artists...sometimes amusing, sometimes harsh, but most often true. On the
title page it reads:

"This is the Kitchen where the ingredients of the cakes and pastries are
being assembled. It is NOT the display counter. It is a meditation on the
When, the How, the Where and the Why of Art and Artists."

Andrews compiled it from her years of private teaching and while it can be
tricky to find, it is well worth the search. The Campbell River Arts Council may still have a few copies of Andrews’ book available for sale. They discovered a box of books in 2009 and they sell them as a fundraising item(See attached newsletter).
http://www.crarts.ca

James Albon, a Traveling Printmaker

While on the eternal search for people that love the smell of ink, British printmaker James Albon's work  caught my discerning eye as I was on the search for Ethiopian printmakers. He popped up for having done a residency in Ethiopia (envious), and his colorful relief images grabbed my attention, as I am sure you will agree, he has a painterly sensibility via the block and ink.....

James Albon is known moreso as an illustrator than a printmaker., although he, like so many other illustrators, makes his images via a print-based method. He studied art at Edinburgh College of Art, and as one of Britain's younger artists, has been traveling to distant places gathering impressions of culture and daily life for his work.

Albon has jokingly said before that his main inspirations are nicotine and alcohol, but then he goes on to say he feels inspiration comes form seeing like and making critical assessments on society.  A lot of his work is about drawing out what he finds interesting in real life. 

Albon is drawn tot he printed image because it is a counterpart to the immediacy f his drawings and sketches. Above, we see a group of men inside a storefront while people walk by on the street. Some of the other images in this article show people moving about street markets and avoiding crowded avenues filled with tourists,  cabs and motorcycles. Overall, one gets a sense of the bustle of the place and it make us curious to follow the people on the street to round the next corner and see what new adventure lies ahead.

Albon's compositions are tossed askew and his cropping of the images help us become a part of them. This printmaker/illustrator is incorporating his images into books and plays and is a part of art's insistence that new artists want to be adept at multi-media. He is on his way, and we'll keep our eyes upon him.  

To read some more about JamesAlbon and to view more of his work, take a look at his website at http://jamesalbon.com/folio/

Further contact information:

james-albon@hotmail.co.uk   Ph. 07858 957989