Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...
. Founded in 1974, it provides fine art printmaking facilities for established and emerging artists, including intaglio,
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
, and
relief printing
Relief printing is a family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix, which has had ink applied to its non-recessed surface, is brought into contact with paper. The non-recessed surface will leave ink on the paper, whereas t ...
. It also offers studio rentals, workshops and exhibition space, and maintains an artist-in-residence program.
History
The printshop was founded in 1974 by artists Don Wright and Heidi Oberheide. Briefly housed in an old airport hangar in St. John's, its first permanent home was a former schoolhouse in the small outport community of St. Michael's, on the southern shore of the Avalon Peninsula. Funding for the venture came from
Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...
and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Wright and Oberheide had both recently arrived in Newfoundland, having trained as printmakers elsewhere. The printshop initially had two etching presses and a lithography press. It offered workshops and space for visiting artists, and early visitors included
Joyce Wieland
Joyce Wieland (June 30, 1930 – June 27, 1998) was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist. Wieland found success as a painter when she began her career in Toronto in the 1950s. In 1962, Wieland moved to New York City and ...
and
Landon Mackenzie
Landon Mackenzie (born November 29, 1954) is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is nationally known for her large-format paintings and her contribution as a professor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (she i ...
.
In 1985, the printshop relocated from St. Michael's to the city of St. John's, where it took over an abandoned sail loft. It has been an important part of the art community in Newfoundland, providing a space for teaching and training, exhibitions, professional development, and artistic collaboration.
In 1991 St. Michael's initiated the Don Wright Scholarship, which provides a recent visual arts graduate with a year's access to the studio. In 2014, the printshop's history was documented by
Kevin Major
Kevin Major (born September 12, 1949) is a Canadian author who lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador with his wife. He writes for both young people and adults, including fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, and plays.
Major was born a ...
in ''Printmaking on the Edge: 40 Years at St. Michael's''.
Artists
Below is a partial list of some of the many artists associated with the printshop:
*
Anne Meredith Barry
Anne Meredith Barry D.Litt. (August 31, 1932 – January 23, 2003) was a Canadian visual artist known for her landscapes of Newfoundland and Labrador. Her paintings and prints made use of bold colours and whimsical patterns, occasionally incorpo ...
*
Nancy Edell
Nancy Edell (November 12, 1942 – June 9, 2005) was an American-born Canadian artist, best known for her rug hooking practice that pushed the boundaries between art and craft. Her practice included animated film, woodcut, monotypes and drawi ...
Kym Greeley
Kym Greeley (born 1973) is a Canadian painter based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, known primarily for her screen-printed paintings of the province's landscape and roads. In 2011, she was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award, one of Canada ...
Landon Mackenzie
Landon Mackenzie (born November 29, 1954) is a Canadian artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is nationally known for her large-format paintings and her contribution as a professor at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (she i ...
*
Doris McCarthy
Doris McCarthy, LL. D. (July 7, 1910 – November 25, 2010) was a Canadian artist known for her abstracted landscapes.
Life and career
Born in Calgary, Alberta, McCarthy attended the Ontario College of Art from 1926 to 1930, where she was award ...
*
Christopher Pratt
John Christopher Pratt (December 9, 1935 – June 5, 2022) was a Canadian painter and printmaker.Mary Pratt
*
Gerald Squires
Gerald Leopold "Gerry" Squires, (November 17, 1937 – October 3, 2015) was an artist from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Perhaps best known for painting dramatic landscapes in acrylic and oil, Squires also produced major work in sculpture, l ...
*
Ericka Walker
Ericka Walker (born June 16, 1981 in Hartford, Wisconsin) is an American artist and printmaker. She lives and works in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Life and work
Education
Walker attended secondary school at Hartford Union High School fr ...