Alan Stein: We Are The Songs Of Weather

Christina Parker Gallery is pleased to announce We Are The Songs Of Weather, an exhibition of recent work by Alan Stein. Originating from an artist book collaboration with Newfoundland poet Des Walsh, the exhibition features wood engravings, oil and pastel paintings and charcoal drawings, accompanied by Des’s poems.

The exhibition will open with an artist reception on Friday, October 17 from 6–8pm, with music provided by Boyd Chubbs. We Are The Songs Of Weather will continue until November 8.

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“The work in this exhibit is in part based on an artist book project collaboration with Newfoundland poet Des Walsh. The book We Are The Songs Of Weather was hand printed in 2022 in a limited edition of 60 copies.

Over the past ten years I have driven down most of the small roads leading out to the coast around Trinity Bight, visiting harbours, walking the hills and shoreline around Trinity Bay near our house in Old Bonaventure, always with a sketchbook and camera in hand. I wanted to capture the spirit of the place through its natural and built landscape.

I’ve collected stories and tried to understand the history of the place, and over the years I have created and exhibited a series of paintings based on these sketches.

After buying our house in 2014 and establishing a studio in Old Bonaventure, I met Des Walsh and we became good friends. I read his books of poetry and proposed that I create a body of work that would be inspired by his poems and his family stories. I then designed and published a hand printed, limited edition book of 18 selected poems, and created a wood engraving image for each poem.

As part of my process of creating the images for the wood engraving blocks, I made larger charcoal drawings exploring and blending my original sketches with imagery inspired by the poems. This exhibit features the series of wood engravings and the charcoal drawings together with pastel paintings from the area.

A short film by Barbara Doran, “The Poet and The Painter”, documents this project.”
—Alan Stein

Alan Stein RCA OSA established a painting studio and The Church Street Press in Parry Sound in 1988. At The Church Street Press Alan hand prints limited edition books illustrated with his own wood engravings. In 2014 Alan established a painting studio in Old Bonaventure, Newfoundland.

Alan is an elected member of The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, a life member of the Ontario Society of Artists, the Society of Canadian Artists and The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. Alan has exhibited his books and paintings in public galleries across Canada, and his books are collected internationally. He has received many awards for his work, including a First Prize for Book Design in Canada. His archives are at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. Several of his paintings are on display at the Ontario Legislative Building as part of the Ontario Government Art Collection.

Alan’s recent hand printed books include We Are The Songs Of Weather with Newfoundland poet Des Walsh in 2022, and On Spirit Lake, Georgian Bay Stories, 12 original stories by well-known Canadian authors with a connection to Georgian Bay. His next limited edition book will be with award winning Canadian author Anne Michaels.

Alan has been represented by the Roberts Gallery in Toronto for over 25 years, and is also represented by Christina Parker Gallery in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He divides his time between Georgian Bay in Ontario and Trinity Bight on the Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland.

“The Poet And The Painter”, the documentary film by Barbara Doran about Alan’s We Are The Songs Of Weather collaboration with Des Walsh, can be viewed here (it’s a 16-minute short film).

Alan Stein’s CV

Alan Stein Brochure

“Here is a photo of Des and I.

It was taken by Jerry McIntosh in Trinity, with the Fort Point Lighthouse in the background. Des took me around the area over several days when we were beginning the book project. He told me many stories of his Irish grandfather coming to Newfoundland as a boy, and his life, and then stories about his own early days in Trinity, as a musician, actor, and playwright, and the locations and background behind many of the poems. I found this was all so wonderful as it gave me so many ideas for the charcoal drawings, which I then worked up into the wood engravings that accompany the poems in the book.

Jerry later worked with Barbara Doran producing the short documentary film, “The Poet and the Painter” about Des and I.”
— Alan Stein

“The Poet and the Painter” (a 16-minute short film) can be viewed here:

Watch the Documentary