Walter Joseph Phillips Journal Sketchbook
8vo. unpaginated. beautifully illustrated plates with many blank pages resembling a sketchbook/journal. spiral bound wrappers (near fine - some light scuffs to covers). [Calgary: Glenbow Museum, n.d.].
ISBN-10: 1895379016
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The work of Walter J. Phillips is heralded in Canada as being among the finest water-colour and woodblock printing of its type. He came to Canada from England in 1913, settling in Winnipeg where he taught and painted extensively in the Lake of Woods Area. Phillips visited the Canadian Rocky Mountains for the first time in 1926, camping and sketching at the artists' mecca of Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park. He moved to Calgary in 1940, and worked at the Banff School of Fine Arts.
Within Glenbow's vast collection of Phillips work are some 76 sketchbooks, which contain delightful images in watercolour, pencil, and pen and ink, depicting the scenery of Canada from Winnipeg to Strathcona Park. Many of these images are preliminary studies for woodblock prints and watercolour paintings, the final version of which are now housed in private and public collections across the country.
Glenbow is pleased to showcase a small sampling of these sketches, for the first time, in a journal format. Drawn from Phillips sketchbooks, c1942 to 1955, these images depict locations in and around Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada.
Quotes from Philips's extensive writings on nature and art, printed with permission of the Manitoba Records Society, are also included. Embossed on the cover is one of several monograms used by Phillips throughout his career; this monogram is taken from a woodcut dated 1936.