Artwork by David Lloyd Blackwood,  Cape Spear, Newfoundland

David Blackwood
Cape Spear, Newfoundland

colour etching and aqutatint
signed, titled, dated 1983 and numbered 48/100 in the lower margin
24.25 x 36.25 ins ( 61.6 x 92.1 cms ) ( sheet )

Auction Estimate: $6,000.00$4,000.00 - $6,000.00

Price Realized $6,490.00
Sale date: May 28th 2019

Provenance:
Private Collection, Newfoundland
Literature:
Essential to Blackwood’s practice is the indelible imprint of human history and narratives on the landscape of Newfoundland. As the easternmost point of North America, Cape Spear offers panoramic vistas for modern tourism, however its roots are heavily linked to military defence and marine security. For over 150 years, the Cantwell family operated the the lighthouse as a beacon of safety vital to mariners and was integral to Second World War military border defence.

Seen from a high vantage point, the artwork invokes a sense of the sublime as the lighthouse sits perched at the edge of the cliffside, exposed to the elements. The clean geometric lines of the structure contrast with the organic and jagged cliff-side terrain, the structure acting as a metaphor for the resiliency of the community of Newfoundlanders in this remote area.

Share this item with your friends

David Lloyd Blackwood
(1941 - 2022) OSA, RCA, Order of Canada

Born in Wesleyville, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, one of the major sealing towns of that province, he is a descendant of a long line of master mariners. Blackwood was awarded a Government of Newfoundland Centennial scholarship to study at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto under Carl Schaefer, John Alfsen, H.W.G. MacDonald and Frederick Hagan. He went on to become Art Master at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. In 1969, Blackwood became the first artist-in-residence at Erindale College, University of Toronto, Mississauga.

David Blackwood uses his background on the East coast of Canada to create grande visual narratives reflecting both the landscape and culture of the province with an emphasis on combining the history, legends, and myths of settlement and developing culture of Newfoundland. He is best-known for his colour etchings with aquatint. His work was used to provide illustrations for Farley Mowat’s “Wake of the Great Sealers”, a collection of stories about the heroic Newfoundlanders who braved the icy seas of the treacherous North Atlantic in search of seals. Driven by hard times at home it was the only hope many of the men had of making money to feed their families. Men perished when their ships went down during wintry gales. Blackwood, a native of a sealing town himself, and a descendent of fishing skippers and sealing captains, provides Mowat’s stirring text with equally stirring and poetic figurative drawings and prints.

Blackwood was awarded the Order of Canada in 1993 in recognition of his work contributing to and preserving the cultural life and heritage of Canada through his artwork. At the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Blackwood Research Centre within the Morin Gelber Print and Drawing Centre was created after a major acquisition of the artists works in 2000. The museum also elected Blackwood as its honourary Chairman in 2003, the first practicing artist to hold this position. In the same year, he was awarded the Order of Ontario.

As one of Canada's most celebrated print-makers, David Blackwood's works are part of significant Canadian and international private and corporate collections including The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle, the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada.

Sources: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977