Twenty assorted 5 x 7 in. blank notecards (5 each of 4 designs) with envelopes in a decorative box.
Published with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
By the time Walter J. Phillips (Canadian, b. England, 1884–1963) immigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, in 1913, he was a critically acclaimed watercolorist. Once in Canada, he took up engraving, but found that he disliked “the cold unresponsive nature of metal . . . and the dirtiness of printing inks.” So he moved on to woodblock printing, the medium for which he would gain worldwide recognition. Phillips’s success as a printmaker was due to his extraordinary perspective, uncompromising design, masterful craftsmanship, and use of dramatic silhouettes and luminous color. Additionally, he loved the medium, writing, “no black is so rich and ‘fat’ as the black in a wood-cut, and no white is so pure. For graphic boldness, directness and simplicity the wood-cut is supreme.”
During Phillips’s fifty-year career, his artwork was exhibited throughout North America and Britain; he also was a prolific book illustrator and taught art at the Banff Centre and the Institute of Technology and Art in Calgary.
Phillips produced only a few floral prints, including the four colorful woodcuts reproduced in this notecard set.
Contains five each of the following notecards:
Tulips, 1928
Zinnias, 1928
Pom Poms, 1928
Cineraria, 1928