Monday Inspiration: Walter Joseph Phillips

Walter Joseph Phillips, The Bather, 1923 (source)

Walter Joseph Phillips, Norman Bay, Lake of the Woods, No.1 (source)

Walter Joseph Phillips (1884-1963) was born in England and studied in Paris and South Africa. He moved to Winnipeg Manitoba and used the surrounding Manitoba landscape as his subject matter. I think his prints are amazingly delicate, those slender lines, and gradations of colour lend a watercolour feel to them. Which is unsurprising because he worked in watercolour also. I particularly love the images that contain people within them, and the way that he deals with that interaction. Maybe because his works are so similar to group of seven- but those works have been so criticized for not containing people, or- more rightly- for making the Canadian landscape feel wild and untamed and void of humans, when in reality they mostly painted in parks and cottage country (with a few exceptions of course).

Monday Inspiration: Mary Wrinch

Mary Wrinch, Green and Gold, 1932 (source)

Mary Wrinch, Sunrise (source)

Mary Wrinch, (1877-1969), was born in England- then moved to Ontario where she studied under Laura Muntz, Robert Holmes, and G.A Reid (her future husband). She also went to England to study the painting of miniatures, before coming back to Canada. Mary Wrinch painted at first- then moved on to Printmaking, using Linoleum and wood block to make prints, often based on nature- especially around Muskoka lake- the same area that the group of seven painted.

I think her works are stunning, stylistically modernist, but arts and crafts too. They're really wonderful,though they do feel a little frozen. Overall I like that- it seems as though they're not about capturing the life cycle or reality of nature, but about capturing a moment in nature. I think Printmaking as a medium has a sort of formal, stark feel to it, that gives it's subjects a feeling of being paused. Some would criticize the work for feeling lifeless- but I like that, and I think she takes advantage of it- to capture the fleeting quality of these moments.

Mary Wrinch is that rare thing- a well documented Canadian female artist- so if you like the works- just google her name and you'll find lots more info online.