Walter Joseph Phillips R.C.A.
Poplar Bay, Lake of the Woods, 1930
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Provenance
Private collection, Calgary
RCA, ASA, CSPE, CSPWC (1884-1963). Born in Barton-Upon-Humber, England, Phillips studied under Edward Taylor at the Birmingham School of Art (1899-1902). He moved to South Africa (1903-1908) before he immigrated to Winnipeg (1913-1924, 1925-40) before settling in Calgary, Alberta in 1941. He is best known for his colour woodcuts (from…
RCA, ASA, CSPE, CSPWC (1884-1963).
Born in Barton-Upon-Humber, England, Phillips studied under Edward Taylor at the Birmingham School of Art (1899-1902). He moved to South Africa (1903-1908) before he immigrated to Winnipeg (1913-1924, 1925-40) before settling in Calgary, Alberta in 1941. He is best known for his colour woodcuts (from 1917) influenced by Japanese colour woodcut techniques and the ornamental organic forms of Art Nouveau. He is also known for his watercolour paintings, lithographs, silkscreens, and illustrations. His subjects include rural prairie farming scenes and mountain landscapes in Lake of the Woods, Ontario (1914-1924); Alberta (1925-1935); the Rocky Mountains (from 1936); and the West Coast of British Columbia (from 1926).
He was influential as a teacher at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary (1941-1949) and at the Banff Summer school (1941-1959).
He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta in 1960.
Phillips moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1959 where he died.
His work is represented in the collections of the AAF, AGO, EAG, BM, MAG, NAC, NGC, and WAG.