Artist David Lloyd Blackwood
Title Sounding Whale - Labrador Sea
Media oil tempera on wood board
Dated
1998
Size 27 x 38 in. / 68.6 x 96.5 cm.
Frame Size 36 x 47 x 1.25 in.
Estimate $150,000 - $250,000
Notes
signed and dated lower right; titled, dated and inscribed verso; framed
Reference
lot includes two original photographs and handwritten letter from the artist discussing the work
The massive tail of a whale rises from turbulent seas, rendered in deep blacks and rich purples. Luminous spray cascades from the flukes in pale pinks, lavenders, and whites - colours that transform observation into something approaching the spiritual. For Blackwood, the whale represents the threshold between seen and unseen worlds; the act of sounding -diving deep - becomes a metaphor for transformation and passage.
Blackwood first encountered these waters at five years old, standing on the deck of his father's schooner. Captain Edward Blackwood was skipper of the Flora S. Nickerson, a Labrador fishing vessel that worked the northern cod grounds each summer. Young David would sail with him 'down to the Labrador area, up to as far as Cook's Harbour and Cape Harrison.' Those voyages gave Blackwood something no art school could provide: the particular light of the northern sea, the presence of whales, the vastness that would later fill his canvases. The two-masted schooner on the horizon is a deliberate reference to the sailing vessels his father knew intimately in these same waters.
The glow in this painting comes from nowhere and everywhere. Blackwood spoke directly about this: 'In many cases the light is coming from within. People naturally ask, 'Where is it coming from? Sunshine? Where?' Well, in many cases the light is, for example, inside the iceberg coming out, and the light is inside the person, coming from the person, emanating from the hand, sometimes the glove.. But from within.'
Provenance
purchased from West End Gallery, Edmonton in 1998; private collection, Edmonton
Biographical Information
David Lloyd Blackwood ~ [1941-2022] Canadian CPE, CSPWC, OSA, RCA
David Blackwood was born in 1941 in Wesleyville, Newfoundland as the son to Captain Edward and Molly Blackwood, a family with a long seafaring history. In 1959, he graduated from Wesleyville Memorial High School and received a Government of Newfoundland Centennial Scholarship to study at the Ontario College of Art. Blackwood graduates from the Ontario College of Art in 1963 and was appointed as art master at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. In 1964, the National Gallery of Canada purchased Blackwood’s first etching, The Search Party for its Biennial of Canadian Prints. In 1969, he became artist in residence at Erindale College, University of Toronto, in Mississauga. His works were exhibited throughout Canada and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1993, in recognition of his contributions to the cultural life and the heritage of Canada. In 2000, David and Anita Blackwood gifted a major collection of Blackwood prints which gave Art Gallery of Ontario the collection of record for Blackwood’s work and created a Blackwood Research Centre.
for more biographical information and examples of work see artist's website at David Blackwood
see
David Blackwood Prints 1962-1984, by P.Grattan, Art Gallery of the Memorial University of Newfoundland;
The Art of David Blackwood, by W.Gough, McGraw Hill Ryerson, 1988;
David Blackwood Master Printmaker, by W.Gough, Douglas and McIntyre, 2001;
biography and other examples in N.G.C. Vol.1, A-F, ed.C.Hill, pg.96
exhibition list in R.C.A.A., by E.McMann, pg.38