A defining aspect of David Blackwood’s work is his ability to transform lived experience and inherited memory into images of enduring power. Raised in the close-knit outport community of Wesleyville, Newfoundland, he was immersed from an early age in a culture of storytelling, featuring accounts of the sea, voyages, whales, and the rhythms of maritime life. These narratives, passed down through generations, became the foundation of an artistic vision that is steeped in North Atlantic lore yet universally resonant.
Twilight Sounding is a commanding and luminous example of this vision. On an impressive scale, the painting immediately envelops the viewer, drawing us into an extraordinary encounter between sailors at sea and the vast forces of the natural world. A great whale rises at the centre of the composition, its immense tail cutting across the sky in a gesture both powerful and graceful. The surrounding water glows with radiant tones of red, violet and blue, while distant vessels and an iceberg anchor the scene within Newfoundland’s coastal waters.
This powerful composition relates directly to Blackwood’s celebrated painting In the Labrador Sea (1995), which achieved a record price at Heffel in the fall 2025 auction. In both of these works, the artist explores an arresting perspective, bridging realms above and below the ocean’s surface and depicting a suspended moment where movement, light and scale converge. In each, the whale dominates the composition, linking the human and natural worlds in a single, unforgettable image. In addition, the panorama of Twilight Sounding is notably similar to the top portion of the imagery explored in the large-format etching Wesleyville Fleet in the Atlantic from 2003, sold by Heffel in May 2013.
Blackwood returns here to one of his most enduring motifs, the relationship of scale between human endeavor and the grandeur of nature. Rather than suggesting conflict, Twilight Sounding conveys a profound sense of harmony and awe. The whale is not a threat but a presence: ancient, commanding and slightly mysterious. Its emergence transforms the sea into a stage of light and motion, witness to a dramatic natural spectacle.
The artist’s mastery of oil tempera, a medium he adapted with remarkable skill, heightens this effect. Built through successive layers of pigment, the surface shimmers with depth and luminosity, capturing both the physical force of the ocean and the fleeting qualities of twilight. The result is a composition that feels at once immediate and timeless—rooted in observation yet elevated into the realm of myth and imagination.
Throughout his career, Blackwood revisited and refined such imagery across paintings, prints and watercolours, each iteration deepening his exploration of the sea’s visual and emotional power. In Twilight Sounding, this exploration reaches a particularly compelling expression, bringing together scale, light, colour and movement in a work of striking presence.
At its core, this painting is an expression of wonder. Standing before it, one is reminded of the rare experience of encountering something truly vast and beautiful. It is this sense of awe—quiet, expansive and enduring—that lies at the heart of Blackwood’s achievement.
The major exhibition David Blackwood: Myth and Legend runs until July 26, 2026, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, proudly sponsored by the Heffel Foundation.