2017 David Blackwood Guide

By Mark Skeffington Some 2 ½ years ago, FineArtCollector published a story called A Guide to David Blackwood’s Best Prints. Since then, several thousand people have read the blog post. Now is a good time to update this guide. Our first guide shone the spotlight on six David Blackwood prints, selected from more than 150 etchings based on factors such as beauty, majesty, desirability, scarcity and reputation. That list looked like this: Fire Down on the Labrador(1980, etching … [Read more...]

Collecting David Blackwoood

By Mark Skeffington David Blackwood is perhaps Canada’s best known visual storyteller, with an unique and unmistakable body of artwork that spans 50 years. The Newfoundland-born master printmaker’s art hangs in hundreds of homes from coast to coast, as well as in galleries big and small, from the Bonavista North Museum & Gallery in his birth town of Wesleyville to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The Port Hope, Ontario-based artist is best known for his limited edition … [Read more...]

A Guide to David Blackwood’s Best Prints

By Clayton Kenyon and Mark Skeffington David Blackwood is one of Canada’s most celebrated and beloved artists, known for his stunning etchings of Newfoundland life. The master printmaker's ability to tell human stories in an image, combined with his incredible technical skills, gives him a unique place in Canadian art. He is also arguably Newfoundland's most important artist ever, having told the province's story in art so well. (Read his biography here) David Blackwood is a prolific … [Read more...]

Repatriating Conrad Furey’s art

Newfoundland-born Conrad Furey was a quintessential Canadian artist, so it seems strange to discover his artworks sitting in Hawaii. Conrad Furey is perhaps best known for his colourful, simply-rendered paintings depicting everyday life on the land and waters of Newfoundland: fishers fishing, mummers mummering, people dancing, etc. The largely self-taught artist also painted Canadians enjoying everyday life: people playing music, sports, going for balloon rides, even taking a bath. But … [Read more...]

David Blackwood’s art tells my family’s story

You don't have to be a Newfoundlander to feel David Blackwood's art, but it helps. I'm not a Newfoundlander, but my family's lifeline run deep through the island's rocky skin and bones. My mother's family were fishers, jigging for cod for several generations in the deep waters off Upper Amherst Cove, a small fishing outport 10 kilometres from Bonavista, Canada's most easterly point, a 4-hour circuitous drive from St. John's. A boat can travel by straight line across the Atlantic between … [Read more...]