John Harold Thomas Snow
John Harold Thomas Snow
1911 - 2004
ASA CSGA RCA
John Snow was born in Vancouver and lived and worked in Calgary for almost 70 years. Known as a pioneering printmaker who started the first fine art lithographic press studio in Calgary, he was also a painter and sculptor. His extensive body of work is well-known in Calgary, where his vibrant prints grace numerous public and private collections including the Nickle Galleries at the University of Calgary, which has a complete set of his lithographs.

Snow worked as a banker for most of his life, but was deeply interested in art. He was part of a family that included artists and that exposed him to fine art often in his youth, and he began his art career as a watercolour painter. With the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted with the Canadian Air Force and trained as a navigator, and was eventually posted with the Royal Air Force in Gibraltar, where he dropped supplies via paratroopers to various locations in Europe. His work as a map reader and navigator forced him to observe the land below him in a unique manner that would later influence his sense of spatial relations in his prints.

Upon his return to Canada, Snow was eager to become an artist and took a life drawing class at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Arts - then called The Tech - now the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD). The class was taught by Calgary modernist painter Maxwell Bates, who had spent five years in a POW camp in Germany. Bates had explored abstraction in Calgary as early as 1928 and his experiences as a prisoner-of-war led to an interest in a style of expressionism heavily influenced by Max Beckmann, whom Bates studied under at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. Bates introduced Snow to printmaking via the woodcut, and in this medium the influence of Beckmann can be seen. Bates and Snow would work together for years, influencing each other strongly. They worked side-by-side, sometimes pulling prints from stones which Snow had discovered abandoned in the alley behind Western Printing and Lithography, a Calgary firm that was upgrading to more modern equipment. Along with the stones, Snow found parts of a press, which he gathered and put back together, eventually purchasing more parts from the same company.

Snow worked tirelessly to promote art in Calgary. He became a technical expert on the lithographic press, hand-pulling each of his prints. He also interested people into his studio to observe and learn from him. He was adamant in his championship of the fine art print, praising not only its quality, but its affordability. Snow wanted people of modest means to be able to acquire fine art. Landscape, the figure, abstract forms and the still life all appear in Snow’s prints. He was known to experiment with modern materials, especially in the 1970s, using plastic doilies, nylon fabric and other types of synthetic cloth to impose pattern over form in his work. Prints of this type speak uniquely of their time, and echo the influx of cheaply made plastics into modern life.

Snow’s dislike of the limelight has resulted in his low profile, but his prints speak for themselves, marking him as a significant figure in the world of Canadian fine art prints.
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Les résultats record de la Maison Heffel
Set of 31 Prints by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $3,750
John Harold Thomas Snow
Set of 31 Prints
lithographs
Estimation : $4,000 - $6,000 CDN
Vendu pour : $3,750 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Prints & Multiples le Thursday, January 27, 2022
Painting II by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $1,750
John Harold Thomas Snow
Painting II
24 x 20 in 61 x 50.8 cm
acrylic on board
Estimation : $1,500 - $2,500 CDN
Vendu pour : $1,750 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
January 2016 - 4th Session le Thursday, January 28, 2016
Edge of Downtown by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $1,750
John Harold Thomas Snow
Edge of Downtown
24 x 30 in 61 x 76.2 cm
oil on canvas
Estimation : $2,500 - $3,500 CDN
Vendu pour : $1,750 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Prairie Modern le Thursday, September 27, 2018
Night I by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $1,375
John Harold Thomas Snow
Night I
26 x 20 in 66 x 50.8 cm
acrylic on board
Estimation : $1,500 - $2,500 CDN
Vendu pour : $1,375 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
March 2016 - 5th session le Thursday, March 31, 2016
Farmyard (02542/2013-772) by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $938
John Harold Thomas Snow
Farmyard (02542/2013-772)
18 x 24 in 45.7 x 61 cm
oil on canvas board
Estimation : $1,200 - $1,600 CDN
Vendu pour : $938 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
Fall 2015 - Imperial Oil Limited Charity Auction le Saturday, October 24, 2015
Roadway by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $875
John Harold Thomas Snow
Roadway
10 x 15 in 25.4 x 38.1 cm
lithograph on paper
Estimation : $300 - $500 CDN
Vendu pour : $875 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
March 2017 - 7th Session le Thursday, March 30, 2017
Wire Gate by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $875
John Harold Thomas Snow
Wire Gate
14 x 18 in 35.6 x 45.7 cm
lithograph on paper
Estimation : $500 - $600 CDN
Vendu pour : $875 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
March 2017 - 7th Session le Thursday, March 30, 2017
Four Works by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $863
John Harold Thomas Snow
Four Works
Estimation : $400 - $600 CDN
Vendu pour : $863 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
September 2004 le Saturday, September 25, 2004
Priddis Landscape (02948/2013-1349) by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $750
John Harold Thomas Snow
Priddis Landscape (02948/2013-1349)
23 3/4 x 17 3/4 in 60.3 x 45.1 cm
lithograph on paper
Estimation : $300 - $500 CDN
Vendu pour : $750 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
November 2015 - 4th Session le Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Motril by John Harold Thomas Snow vendu pour $688
John Harold Thomas Snow
Motril
26 x 20 in 66 x 50.8 cm
acrylic on board
Estimation : $1,500 - $2,500 CDN
Vendu pour : $688 CDN (Prime d’achat incluse)
November 2015 - 7th Session le Saturday, November 28, 2015