Abbozzo Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature
Memorial University Art Gallery, “David Blackwood: Prints 1962-1984,” St. John's, 1985, pages 1-2
Born in 1941 in Wesleyville, Bonavista Bay on Newfoundland's east coast. “David Blackwood's family was a part of [the] seafaring tradition with his great-grandfather Captain Ned Bishop, his grandfather Captain Albert Blackwood of the S.S. Imogene and his father Edward, a skipper in the cod fishery.” Naturally, Blackwood was drawn to the romantic yet treacherous sea that held so much control over his family and community.
While attending OCA in the early 1960s, Blackwood had a host of important Canadian artists as mentors. It was Jock Macdonald, however, who encouraged him to draw from his roots, and Rowley Murphy, who worked alongside the young artist in promoting maritime themes. The persevering young Blackwood is now heralded as “creating a [visual] Newfoundland mythology around a way of life, a community spirit, and an heroic engagement with Nature.”
