Sold for: $16,380

PROVENANCE
Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville
Private Collection, Ontario
Sold sale of Canadian Post-War & Contemporary Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 15, 2013, lot 68

LITERATURE
William Gough, David Blackwood: Master Printmaker, 2001, page xiii
Katharine Lochnan, Black Ice, David Blackwood: Prints of Newfoundland, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2011, a similar 1995 etching entitled Wesleyville Fleet in the Labrador Sea reproduced catalogue #60, unpaginated

David Blackwood is one of Canada’s most important printmakers, whose work has been collected in depth by the Art Gallery of Ontario. Blackwood grew up in Newfoundland in a seafaring family – both his father and grandfather were ship’s captains. Steeped in the myths, stories and customs of this unique province, Blackwood’s depictions of Newfoundland life in his work are an invaluable record of a traditional way of life that is all but gone. The sea is of central importance in his work, and the image of a whale has often appeared in it, such as in his renowned print from 1980, Fire Down on the Labrador. In this compelling watercolour, Blackwood captures the sense of wonder surrounding an encounter with one of these leviathans. Plunging into the deep, its bright and intelligent eye draws us to the mystery of its life. As William Gough writes, Blackwood “approaches his art as if it were the ocean – endless, deep and infinitely variable. It is here that Blackwood has set his nets, and his nets come up filled with light and stories.”

All prices are in Canadian Dollars