Sybil Andrews is renowned as a founding member of the London-based Grosvenor School of Modern Art (1925 – 1940), focused on avant-garde linocut printmaking. Using this accessible, “democratic” medium, members of the school captured the speed and movement of the machine age through their use of bold colour and dynamic rhythm, with subjects ranging from industry to sport to urban life.

In 1947, Andrews immigrated to Canada with her husband, Walter Morgan, a co-worker from the Hythe shipyard where they had worked during World War II. After moving to Campbell River, BC, Andrews built a studio on her rural property at Willow Point and continued to produce art. In 1960, she began to offer private art lessons at her home.

The consignor of this work was part of a group of aspiring lino printmakers mentored by Andrews in Campbell River from about 1980. She purchased this print directly from the artist.

Andrews’s memories of rural life in Suffolk recur in a number of her prints, including this striking linocut executed after she immigrated to Canada. Janet Nicol notes the image “is reminiscent of rural Suffolk but also inspired by her visits to Hudson’s Farm,” on Vancouver Island’s eastern shoreline, which she and her students would visit on sketching trips.

According to Stephen Coppel and Peter White, this print is based on two experimental prints pulled in 1946. Writes Coppel: “Because the original blocks melted in the ship’s hold when Andrews emigrated to Canada in 1947, new blocks were later cut and the edition printed in 1979.” This is a superb impression with vibrant colours.