Walter Joseph (W.J.) Phillips
Walter Joseph Phillips, born in Lincolnshire, England in 1884, is recognised today as a master of the watercolour and the woodcut print medium. Trained at the Birmingham School of Art, he was a successful watercolour artist in England before he and his wife, Gladys, immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1913.
Although watercolour remained Phillips's primary medium, the woodcut print was an enduring interest that brought his work to a wider audience. Among his best-known and loved images in watercolour and woodcut are those that depict family holidays on Lake of the Woods. While the family lived in Winnipeg, their summers were often spent at a cottage on the lake. Walter and Gladys had six children, and he spent much of his time during these getaways painting the children, carefree in their youth, as they relished their summers at the lake.
In 1940 Phillips was invited to join the faculty of the Banff Summer School of Fine Arts (now the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity) where he taught nearly every summer for twenty years. Phillips had first encountered the Canadian Rockies in 1926, and inspired by their grandeur, he returned west to the mountains as often as he was able over the next 15 years. In 1941, with five of their six children grown, Phillips and Gladys moved from Winnipeg to Calgary where he had accepted a teaching position at the Provincial Institute of Technology (the art department of which is now the Alberta University of the Arts). The couple finally moved to Banff in 1943 where they would live beneath the shadow of Mount Rundle—his "bread and butter" mountain—until 1960
Walter Phillips's works are housed in collections across Canada, including The National Gallery of Canada, The Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, as well as collections abroad in London, Washington D.C., New Jersey, Japan, and private collections the world over. The most extensive private collection of his work was gifted to the city of Winnipeg. Now permanently housed in the Pavilion Gallery Museum in Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park, the Crabb collection is available for public viewing year round.
Available Artwork
Swans
- Wood Engraving on Paper
- 3.5 x 3.7 in
- 1932
- Price available on request
Deep Cove
- Watercolour on Paper
- 14 x 21 in
- 1957
- Price available on request
The Source of the Bow
- Wood Engraving on Paper
- 6.4 x 4.1 in
- 1936
- Price available on request
Bredon Village
- Woodcut on Paper
- 10.43 x 12.44 in
- 1928
- Price available on request
Above Lake Louise
- Woodcut on Paper
- 7.44 x 6.22 in
- 1945
- Price available on request
A Gloucester Village
- Woodcut on Paper
- 8.5 x 9.8 in
- 1926
- Price available on request
Prairie Elevator
- Woodcut on Paper
- 8.3 x 12.8 in
- 1943
- Price available on request
Norman Bay, Lake of the Woods
- Woodcut on Paper
- 11.49 x 8.38 in
- 1920
- Price available on request
Engineer's House and South Wall
- Wood Engraving on Paper
- 3.1 x 4.6 in
- 1931
- Price available on request
Holiday Time (Mary)
- Woodcut on Paper
- 2.48 x 10.94 in
- 1921
- Price available on request
Rime
- Woodcut on Paper
- 5.5 x 5.5 in
- 1934
- Price available on request
Beaver Lodge
- Woodcut on Paper
- 7.4 x 14.7 in
- 1944
- Price available on request
Summer Night
- Woodcut on Paper
- 6.96 x 9.48 in
- 1931
- Price available on request
Exceptional Sales
Floating Dock, Mamalilicoola, B.C.
- Mixed Media
- 20.75 x 16 in
- 1927
- Sold
Lake McArthur, Canadian Rockies
- Watercolour on Paper
- 11.75 x 13.9 in
- circa 1926
- Sold
Mamalilicoola, British Columbia
- Woodcut on Paper
- 10 x 12 in
- 1928
- Sold
Little Log House
- Watercolour on Paper
- 8 x 9.75 in
- circa 1920
- Sold
Seven Sisters Falls
- Watercolour on Paper
- 12 x 14 in
- circa 1926
- Sold
Bow Falls, Banff
- Watercolour on Paper
- 10 x 15 in
- circa 1936
- Sold
Deer at Rainbow Falls
- Watercolour on Paper
- 15 x 21.5 in
- 1941
- Sold
Wapta Falls
- Watercolour on Paper
- 15.75 x 19.5 in
- 1949
- Sold
Jack Pine
- Woodcut on Paper
- 8.8 x 9.8 in
- 1940
- Sold
West Road (Mountain Road)
- Woodcut on Paper
- 9 x 13 in
- 1944
- Sold
Above Lake Louise
- Watercolour on Paper
- 18.5 x 23.5 in
- 1947
- Sold
Summer Idyll
- Woodcut on Paper
- 21.8 x 12.12 in
- 1926
- Sold
York Boat on Lake Winnipeg
- Woodcut on Paper
- 10.2 x 13.7 in
- 1930
- Sold
Mount Field
- Watercolour on Paper
- 14 x 12 in
- 1937
- Sold
Flying Island, Lake of the Woods
- Woodcut on Paper
- 10.25 x 9.75 in
- 1923
- Sold
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