Madrona Gallery presents
David Blackwood
in the 2023 Historic Exhibition
March 18 - April 1
David Blackwood
in the 2023 Historic Exhibition
March 18 - April 1
Madrona Gallery’s annual Historic and Post-War Canadian Art exhibition brings together a wide variety of artworks. Gallery Director Michael Warren explains that Canada is a large country with many art movements emerging from regional areas.
“For this show we worked hard to assemble a cross-section of leading artists from coast to coast,” says Warren.
From the west coast, there are artworks by Emily Carr and E.J. Hughes. Moving east to to the prairies, the show features the grandeur of William Perehudoff’s abstractions along with a unique animal sculpture by celebrated artist Joe Fafard. Molly Lamb Bobak represents both coasts: born and educated in Vancouver, she spent more than half her life in New Brunswick.
“For this show we worked hard to assemble a cross-section of leading artists from coast to coast,” says Warren.
From the west coast, there are artworks by Emily Carr and E.J. Hughes. Moving east to to the prairies, the show features the grandeur of William Perehudoff’s abstractions along with a unique animal sculpture by celebrated artist Joe Fafard. Molly Lamb Bobak represents both coasts: born and educated in Vancouver, she spent more than half her life in New Brunswick.
Detail: Flags for David Judah by David Blackwood, oil on canvas, 48x35 in, (2005-2013)
Madrona Gallery presents a rare selection of David Blackwoods in this show. Using expressive, eloquent images, Blackwood recounts growing up in the sea-faring tradition of Newfoundland. There are two cheerful watercolours, an oil on canvas Flag painting and a powerful etching called Molly Glover on Braggs Island. Blackwood (1941-2022) died last July at age 80 after a long illness. His stellar career as a visual artist and story-teller includes over 90 solo shows and two retrospectives. He received several honorary degrees and has appeared in numerous publications and documentaries. In 1993 he received a National Heritage Award and in 2002, the Order of Canada.
Detail: Molly Glover on Braggs Island by David Blackwood
The four Blackwoods spotlight his expertise in various mediums: watercolour, oil on canvas and printmaking. His skills were honed during an excellent education at the Ontario College of Art (1959-1963). Jock MacDonald, a member of Painters Eleven and promoter of abstract art in Canada, was one of his teachers. Another was Carl Schaffer, who painted the rolling rural landscapes of Southwestern Ontario. Schaffer instructed that a painter must know his environment in order to balance technique with emotional expression. These balanced expressions are well represented in Blackwood’s artworks. Fred Hagan, a prominent Canadian painter, also taught Blackwood at OCA. It’s likely that Hagan introduced printmaking to Blackwood, after noticing his innate skills with linework and composition. Hagan wrote that “all great paintings have some inexplicable inner mystery you can’t quite put your finger on.” Perhaps he noticed these qualities developing in his promising student.
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Madrona celebrates the recent arrival of Blackwood’s Flags for David Judah. The large oil on canvas painting, four feet tall, was completed over the course of several years (2005-2013). The flags are international maritime signal flags, one of a variety of methods used to communicate with other vessels. Blackwood adds layers of history and mystery in this atmospheric rendering. David Bonar Blackwood (David Judah) is the name of his son who died in 2005 at age 33. The flags appear to be a heartfelt communication with his late son and also a connection with his own father. As a youth, Blackwood probably studied these coded messages together with his sea-captain father. |
Flags for David Judah, oil on canvas, 48x35 in, (2005-2013)
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Molly Glover on Braggs Island, etching, Artist Proof 1/15, 32x20 in, 1997. SOLD
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Molly Glover on Braggs Island is an etching completed in 1997. Molly Glover was born on Braggs Island, 17 nautical miles from Blackwood’s home in Wesleyville. Molly was the second wife of Captain Blackwood and only 18 when they married. She inherited Captain Blackwood’s busy household and four stepchildren. David was Molly’s first child of the marriage. As a young boy, he witnessed her mental health challenges. This situation might explain the atmospheric image of a youthful woman floating out of touch with her environment. Molly reaches out for balance, eyes closed, feet sinking into swaying vegetation. The artist’s compassionate portrayal of emotional dissonance is skillfully enhanced by a variety of curving linework on the rocky terrain. |
Fafard’s Suffolk, watercolour, 20x26 in, 2011
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Glass Table, watercolour, 22x22 in, 2012
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Blackwood used watercolour painting as a welcome respite from the rigours of printmaking. Both paintings show vibrant floral displays, arranged by his wife Anita. Fafard’s Suffolk includes a whimsical maquette of a Suffolk sheep. Loose washes of blue-gray pigment define the glass bowl and vertical background of this charming still life. Glass Table conveys the reflective qualities of glass with a complex arrangement of linework and a prismatic blue-green palette. “Painting has always been there,” explained a mature Blackwood, who was 70 years of age when he completed these watercolours. “An artist never retires,” he added, noting the freedom and focus of his current lifestyle.
Madrona Gallery, 606 View Street, Victoria, B.C. V8W 1J4
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10:00-5:30. 1-250-380-4660.
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