Harbours; Newfoundland & Portugal - Opening November 11, 12-4 pm - Roberts Gallery, 631 Dupont Street, Toronto

Please join me for the opening of my new exhibit “Harbours: Newfoundland and Portugal.

One Night in Old Bonaventure, Newfoundland 44 x60 inches, oil on canvas 2023

 I have spent the past two years sketching the small fishing boats and harbours along the south coast of Portugal and around Trinity Bay in Newfoundland.

 There is a deep rooted connection between Portugal and Newfoundland, and the Portuguese White Fleet whose fishermen came to Newfoundland to fish for cod.

 There is cultural connection between Portugal and Newfoundland in traditional food, such as baccalou, and the traditional music of both places. There are many harbours where the fishing fleet is still at work and the way of life is very much connected to the past.

Trestle Brewery Parry Sound Show & Sale, Opening September 10, 2-4pm

Exhibition of selected Georgian Bay pastels and wood engravings from “On Spirit Lake”

hanging one of the wood engravings

British Library - "On Spirit Lake"

A recent blog post from the British Library on acquiring a copy of “On Spirit Lake; Georgian Bay Stories”

click the link

https://blogs.bl.uk/americas/2022/11/on-my-desk-on-spirit-lake-georgian-bay-stories-from-church-street-press.html 

Bound Book Arts Fair

I will be displaying my hand printed books, wood engravings and broadsides at Bound Book Arts Fair, December 11, 2022, at the Arts & Letters Club Toronto

OSA 150th anniversary exhibit, "Breath Heart Spirit"

My limited edition book “On Spirit Lake” is part of the 150th anniversary exhibit of the OSA, “Breath Heart Spirit” the exhibit takes place at the Lieutenant Governor’s Suite, Ontario Legislative Building over the next 6 months.

Here is a link to the exhibit, I am listed under “Breath”

https://arts.lgontario.ca/osa150

The Poet and the Painter Documentary film

“The Poet and the Painter” is a new short documentary film about poet Des Walsh and painter Alan Stein, by director Barbara Doran and filmmaker Jerry McIntosh.

This 2022 documentary chronicles the relationship between Alan and Des, their love of New and Old Bonaventures, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and the story behind their collaboration in the recent hand printed, limited edition book “We Are The Songs of Weather”, 18 selected poems by Des Walsh with 20 wood engravings by Alan Stein.

The film covers some aspects of hand printing and wood engraving, along with the opening of the exhibit of related charcoals, pastels and prints at the English Harbour Arts Centre.

Shown publicly for the first time in August 2022 at Writers at Woody Point.

Funding from the Newfoundland Arts Council.

To view The Poet and the Painter

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ou8uzrfcn4wzqpn/final%20version%20july%2027.mp4?dl=0

We Are The Songs Of Weather

Now Available from The Church Street Press

“We Are The Songs Of Weather”

18 selected poems by Newfoundland poet Des Walsh, with 20 wood engravings by Alan Stein

Hand-printed in a limited edition of 60 copies, hand-sewn with decorated paste paper covers by Don Taylor. Hand-made papers including ‘lichen paper’ by Papeterie St- Armand, 88 pages $600

Songs Of Weather, Georgian Bay & Newfoundland. Roberts Gallery

A new series of pastels and oils with a focus on Georgian Bay Islands and Newfoundland harbours connected by the theme of Weather. Also limited edition wood engraving prints from my recent Church Street Press hand printed book “On Spirit Lake, Georgian Bay Stories”

Opening November 11, 2021 exhibition continues until November 27. Artist present November 13

Roberts Gallery, 631 Dupont Street, one block east of Christie, 416-924-8731 robertsgallery.net

Hand coloured frontispiece

My next hand printed book is in the works, please check my Facebook page to see a couple of videos of the book in process. This engraving will be tipped into a book of 18 selected poems by Newfoundland poet Des Walsh. With 18 wood engravings, printed on a Vandercook #4 proof press onto hand made paper from St. Armand, with engravings on hand made Japanese paper, endpapers are custom paper made from Lichens collected in the hills above Old Bonaventure, with unique ‘seaweed” paste paper covered boards. The book will be launched in 2022

Please note that due to internet pirates my website has changed to

www.alanstein.art

Roberts Gallery 49th Annual Artist's Choice Exhibition

Two new pastels by Alan are part of this exhibition, Opens January 28 and continues to February 20

LIMITED EDITION HAND COLOURED WOOD ENGRAVING BY ALAN STEIN

LIMITED EDITION HAND COLOURED WOOD ENGRAVING BY ALAN STEIN

SITTIN’ ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY

Sittin' in the mornin' sun
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' comes

 Otis Redding’s words – Alan Stein’s art

So many of our customers asked how they could help us after the fire in the Beatty Building on 31 May 2020 destroyed all of our stock and fixtures. We were overwhelmed and humbled by the desire of so many who offered support and assistance.

 Charlotte asked me to make this wood engraving so that it could be offered to our customers who have been so very supportive with kind words and purchases, in the past 3 months, and over the past 32 years.

 We await the restoration of the Beatty Building and look forward to the day we can re-open there. While we are temporarily re-located, and open for business, at 41 Church Street, Charlotte is preparing orders for new stock and we have made plans to purchase an eclectic mix of bookshelves that will be both functional and attractive, giving us a whole new – old – look.

I created a wood engraving that those of us who enjoy Georgian Bay, and reading by the water, will appreciate. As you look at this image you might imagine that you have just stepped away from your book to go for a swim in the morning sun, or perhaps to get a glass of wine when the evening comes.

 Please take this opportunity to purchase one of only 50 engravings for $100 (Tax and mailing, if necessary, included).

All proceeds from the sale of this engraving will be put toward the purchase of bookshelves for Parry Sound Books.

 Please call Parry Sound Books at 705-746-7625 or send an email to parrysoundbooks@gmail.com to arrange purchase.

Travel Reflections #6

Petroushka

The Visit of the Ballerina

Petrushka Alone, Sadness

This is time travel, into the past, my Russian grandmother’s past, when she was16 years old living in St. Petersburg during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

 In 2009, James Campbell, the Canadian clarinetist and Artistic Director of the Festival of the Sound, an annual summer chamber music festival held in Parry Sound, and I were talking about “Painted Sounds” a program we came up with that blended live performance with visual art. I suggested creating a series of paintings that would be my interpretation of the scenes from the ballet Petroushka by Stravinsky. He suggested a performance of the original two piano score performed by Anagnoson and Kinton. The scenes would be projected onto a large screen during a live performance and the original artworks would be on exhibit in the lobby of the arts centre.

 I began research into the original Ballet Russes stage design and costume design that winter. I found black and white photographs of Nijinsky dancing, and coloured drawings of original stage sets, and books on Russian folk costumes. We went to a wonderful exhibition of Chagall works organized by the Jewish Museum in NYC, Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theatre 1919 -1949, 200 works of art and ephemera, that included many of his original drawings for early Yiddish theatre productions, rare film footage, original posters and programs and a couple of actual painted stage sets.

 Then I was off, creating a series of 20 scenes painted in watercolour and acrylic, in bright colours capturing the spirit of the original ballet scenes described by Stravinsky, mixed with influences by Chagall and the Yiddish theatre, and then mixing in some background winter scenes from Georgian Bay!

The Dance of the Moor

The Waltz of the Puppets

With a score in hand I marked in the scene changes and with the help of Craig Harley in the tech room at the Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts we projected scans of the original 16x20 inch paintings onto the 30 foot screen above the musicians during the live performance.

 All the images can be seen on my website, and were included in my 2009 solo exhibition at the Roberts Gallery in Toronto. The live performance with Anagnoson and Kinton performing with the projections was reprised last year at the 40th anniversary season of the Festival of the Sound. Sadly The Festival of the Sound is on sabbatical this year due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Snow Begins to Fall, Enter the Mummers

The Moor Strikes Petroushka Dead

Travel Reflections #5

 New York City

McSorley's Old Ale House, NYC. pastel 18x24

Atlas, NYC pastel 22x30

 I have many memories of New York City. I have been travelling to New York City since I was a kid. We visited often as my mother had cousins living there. When my grandmother came to the US from Russia in the 1920s she lived with her family on the lower east side on Monroe Street. As young woman she worked as a seamstress in a building not far from the Shirt Waist Factory, and saw the fire. She was married at City Hall in 1929. My mother was sent to NYC during the polio epidemic in Toronto and could remember spending time with her teenage cousins out on wrought iron balconies on the Lower East Side. My parents went to NYC on their honeymoon.

 For a period of time Charlotte and I used to go twice a year, we visited museums and galleries, went to the opera, had lunch or drinks at Bemelmans Bar and the Four Seasons, went to Katz’s deli, the Oyster Bar at Grand Central, did the galleries in Soho, went to Chinatown, Little Italy, Strand Books and bought art supplies at the wonderfully ancient Central Supply, ate huge plates of BBQ at Virgils, saw Blossom Dearie perform at Danny’s Skylight Room, and Woody Allen at the Carlyle. We love the place!

Paramount Building, Times Square pastel 22x30

Katz's Deli NYC, charcoal 22x30

 I took each of our kids to NYC after they graduated from high school, and we did all the tourist things, Times Square, Rockefeller Centre, the Empire State Building, a musical on Broadway, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island where their great grandmother landed. When I took Julian on his trip it was only months after 9/11, all the memorials were still up around the city, ‘missing’ notices pinned to fences, the site a ruin. I felt like my city had been attacked, with many storefronts in lower Manhattan still covered in dust, but people were so happy to see us visiting.

 Charlotte and I had an ‘aha’ moment when we finally found my grandparents marriage certificate in the basement of the City Archives near the Brooklyn Bridge which we walked across every time we went. Charlotte often travelled with ice skates to skate at Bryant Park, the rink in Rockefeller Plaza, and at Central Park.

There are so many memories because we went so often. In later years staying with cottage friends who live near Union Square, their neighbourhood became ours. City Bakery for breakfasts, grocery shopping in the Union Square markets, Trader Joe’s Wine Shop. I was attracted to everything, the history, new and old discoveries. I loved walking the streets taking photographs day and night, and sketching.

 I had large exhibits of NYC images in 2005 and 2012. All of the images can be viewed on my website.

Travel Reflections #4

Venice Part 2

 This post is about the lithographs in my hand printed book “In Venice”. The lithographs are printed directly from the stone. I hand coloured one using watercolour to be used as the frontispiece. The book was printed in an edition of just 15 copies and each book had a hand painted cover, featuring part of a wall of Tinteretto’s studio reflected in the canal. You can see images of the book on my website.

Corte del Paradiso, In Venice, lithograph

Ca' de Mosto, In Venice, lithograph

Campiello San Rocco, In Venice, lithograph

Rio de la Panda, In Venice lithograph

The text of the book tells how Whistler was forced into bankruptcy after a sensational libel trial against critic John Ruskin. He lost everything when costs were assigned to both parties. Whistler was saved by the Fine Arts Society who commissioned a series of etchings of Venice, which they could sell to their subscribers. The text of the book includes letters, a transcript of the trial, and quotes from some of Whistler’s writings. Based on my on-site sketches I selected 5 scenes to be used in the book.

 The process of creating a lithograph is complicated, and entirely magical. Only one type of limestone from Bavaria is used. My stone was given to me by Bill Poole, and originally belonged to Fred Hagan. I drew on the stone in my studio with wax lithography crayons before transporting it to the Open Studio in Toronto. Over several days I developed the image on the stone in stages using a combination of Gum Arabic, Nitric acid and rosin. I then printed an edition of 25 copies of each illustration, on hand made Gampi Torinoko Japanese paper, on Open Studio’s large litho press, learning how to keep the stone at ‘just the right’ level of dampness and build up ‘just the right’ amount of greasy black ink to make a perfect print. I printed fifteen numbered prints for the book and 10 to sell separately. I learned this technique from my cottage neighbour, the late Hartwell Priest, when she was in her 90s. She studied in New York City under Hans Hoffman, and learned her lithography technique from George Miller in his loft studio on east 14th street, just off 5th Avenue. He printed for most of the well know artists in the United States in the 40s 50s and 60s.

 After each print run was completed I ground the image off the surface of the stone and was ready to start again and make the next image.

 The books have all sold, but there are lithographs available. The lithographs are signed and numbered. There is one complete set and several single lithographs still available.

 Look under ‘Print Shop’ on my website to see the making of this work

Travel Reflections #3

Venice Part 1

 The next two posts will be about Venice, a place we have returned to many times. We loved it from the first, arriving from the airport on the local water transport at dusk into the Piazza San Marco, then transferring to the #1 Vaporetto, to the Ca’ d’Oro stop, as all the lights of the city came on in the palazzos lining the grand canal. Everything was wonderful! There was so much to explore, the intimate scale of the whole place, walking the streets, the canals, getting lost, the somewhat decaying architecture, visiting museums and historic buildings filled with artwork, reflections in the canals, the incredible inlaid marble floors of the Basilica di San Marco, taking the vaporetto out to Torcello and climbing the church tower there, the ‘watery light’ on the lagoon, visits to Burano and Murano, opera at ‘la Fenice’, the Rialto Market, dinners at local restaurants recommended by our friend Mattia. The turn of every corner a fresh delight.

Fondementa dei Mori, Tinteretto's house, Venice, pastel 22x30

Campiello San Rocco, Venice pastel 22x30

Venice Ghetto, pastel 22x30

On our visit in 2006 I started on a large project with the city of Venice as its theme. It would be a two part project, first a series of paintings, and then a hand printed book with historic text based on Whistler’s time in Venice, illustrated with my lithographs. I would follow Whistler’s path and try to find some of the locations where he made a series of pastel drawings and etchings in the winter and spring of 1869. It was amazing how little had changed since Whistler’s time, and that when I found a spot where he sketched, I could see almost exactly what he looked at when he made his sketch or print so many years earlier. His etchings, however, were reversed in the final prints as he had sketched directly onto prepared plates.

 We stayed with Mattia, at Ponte Chiodo, a wonderful small palazzo on a side canal in the Cannaregio district of Venice, not far from the Ca’ d’Oro. This beautifully restored small hotel has original terrazzo floors with murano glass chandeliers, 5 rooms with views over the canals, and a rare garden out back. From our second floor window we watched daily life unfold, we could see two bridges, where every day Venetians travelled back and forth to work or school. We watched nuns heading to church, boats arrive to deliver goods, and take away the garbage.

 These three paintings were part of a larger series exhibited at the Roberts Gallery in 2007. These locations were not too far away from where we stayed. I went out each morning, fairly early, I would find a location, make on-site sketches, take a couple of reference photographs, and then walk back to the hotel in time for breakfast of fresh rolls and excellent lattes, made on Mattia’s huge shining espresso machine.

Travel Reflections #2

Much of my artwork is based on my travels, and so in a time when we cannot travel beyond our homes, I am re-reading my journals and, in my mind, revisiting the places where Charlotte and I travelled.

 A series of reflections. A journey into the recent past. Remembering the discoveries we made, and places we returned to, sad and wonderful at the same time.

Vejer de la Frontera

Vejer de la Frontera, February 17, 2015

 We drove 30 km southwest from Arcos de la Frontera through rolling hills and cork oak forests to Vejer. We had been here before, for just an afternoon years earlier, and had said to ourselves this was a place we had to come back to for a longer stay.

 There was only one way up and one way down from the hilltop town. Our hotel, Casa de le Califa, was on one side of the town square. In the center was a beautiful majolica tiled fountain surrounded by tiled benches under huge palm trees. The hotel was built on 6 or 7 levels down the hillside and had a roof top terrace with a patterned balustrade, potted plants and terra cotta tiled floors. From here we had a wonderful view across to the rest of the town beyond, and to the valley below.

 The town is a maze of narrow and steep cobbled streets. Behind a church, next to the crenellated town walls, we found the Juderia. Evidence of the past could be seen in the faded Jewish stars painted on some of the buildings.

 At the end of each day the sunlight angled across the valley and lit up the town, the facades of the buildings stacked on top of each other up on the hillside created an amazing cubist pattern of light and shadow planes. To finish the day we returned to the hotel, where In the midst of a garden courtyard, in a restored, arched roof stone building dating from 1560, we are served a wonderful Tunisian style Tagine dinner.

Ragusa Rooftops

Ragusa Rooftops, February 15, 2015

It was here that I decided that the theme of my next solo exhibition at the Roberts Gallery would be “Views From Rooftops”. The exhibit is on my website, “Roberts Gallery 2017”

We drove through a beautiful valley with stone fences through fields of olive groves, with fruit and vegetable stands along the roadside. Ragusa is built on two hills, with an old town and a new town. The old town was mostly destroyed in the earthquake of 1693, which destroyed 45 towns and killed 60,000 people in Sicily. The new part of the town was built in its entirety in the 1700s. Our hotel was on a hilltop, with a stone walled terraced garden, orange trees, a pool and a lawn looking across the valley to the town below.

 Because of the setting of the hotel the view of the Duomo is from above the level of the main dome. Steps wind down the hill, around behind the duomo, along to a narrow side street, into the piazza below. Looking back, there is a wide set of steps leading up to the front doors of the Duomo now towering above us, surrounded by a huge wrought iron fence. All of the buildings on the square have Baroque facades, palm trees line the streets, and with the Duomo in the background it all feels like a stage set. Ragusa did, in fact, serve as the film set for Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano detective series.

At one end of the piazza a small church is busy out front with nuns entering, and we decide to go in. We listen to the nuns sing in the beautifully decorated baroque interior painted and gilded, the floor set in an intricate pattern of majolica tiles and obsidian stone. Leaving, we walk beyond the piazza, though the gardens for an amazing view over the countryside below as the sun sets.

Seville Rooftops #2

Seville Rooftops, February 10, 2015

 This was our fourth visit to Seville, but our first stay at the Hotel Amadeus in the middle of the Santa Cruz district. We had a room on the top floor with easy access to a large roof top terrace, with a bar and tables, but empty at this time of the year.  There was a 360 degree view over the city. We could see the many domes and pinnacles of the cathedral and countless other church steeples all around us, tiled in decorative majolica tiles and painted in pastel colours. Nearby other roof top terraces had colourful laundry hanging out to dry.

 We visited the Alcazar, Triana, and the bullring, we saw Norma at the opera house, we ate tapas, we visited the cathedral, and climbed La Giralda.  We also revisited the home of the Countess Lebrija, the ground floor paved with the mosaic floors she rescued from the countryside in Italica. Showcases feature collections of pottery, and wonderful tiled staircases lead to the upper floors, with rooms that include her library and a spectacular dining room.

The idea of a Rooftops series became fully formed here as I did many sketches in the late afternoon sun over the 4 days we stayed in Seville.

Travel Reflections #1

Much of my artwork is based on my travels, and so in a time when we cannot travel beyond our homes, I am re-reading my journals and, in my mind, revisiting the places where Charlotte and I travelled.

A series of reflections. A journey into the recent past. Remembering the discoveries we made, and places we returned to, sad and wonderful at the same time.

Tropea; ‘View to Stromboli’

Tropea, Feb 19, 2016

We arrived at our hotel a day earlier than expected and spent two nights in Tropea. Driving south to Sicily, after picking up friends in Pompeii, along the coastal road. It was a lovely old hotel in the center of the town, with a rooftop breakfast room. The town itself is perched on the edge of cliff. The evening of the day we arrived children were out in costumes in the town square celebrating the end of Carnevale. At the end of the main street there was a balcony with a wrought iron fence on the edge of the cliff looking out across the Tyrrenian Sea. Below us, perched on a rock promontory, was the Sanctuary Santa Maria dell’Isola, built in the 6th – 9th C, beautifully restored, and illuminated at night. In the distance we could see the island of Stromboli with smoke rising from the volcano - at 920m it is one of the most active volcano’s in the world. I made several sketches over two days and chose a nighttime setting, with multi-story ancient buildings seeming to grow out of the edge of the cliff.

View From Naples – March 26, 2008

 We arrived in Naples and Chiaja Hotel de Charme, a very nice small hotel in a pedestrian shopping area, our room with a balcony overlooking the street scene. We were within easy walking distance of the castle on the waterfront, and the Teatro San Carlo opera house where we had reservations for the next night. Next door is the shopping mall Galleria Umberto 1, and not too far is the Hilltop Castel Sant’Elmo, above us.

 We walked up the hill to the Grand Hotel Parker’s built in 1870, a literary and cultural retreat for British High Society. We took ‘afternoon tea’, at the rooftop bar enjoying some of the best views of the Bay of Naples with Capri visible in the distance. Beyond the pattern of city streets and the many church steeples all laid out below, and further along the coast, is Vesuvius.

 After ordering tea, Charlotte asked the waiter if we could buy one of the nice little ashtrays with their name on it, he said ‘no signora, but we break so many, they go missing all time’ (nudge nudge) ‘Ah’ we said as she slipped one into her purse. I took photos from the rooftop balcony in the drizzle as reference to make a sketch later.

 We walked back down the hill. Getting a little lost we ended up walking through a rather rough and completely “authentic” neighbourhood of narrow streets with graffiti, and views into living rooms with Madonnas on the walls. A place where lives were lived out on the streets among the ‘garbage and the flowers’, broken motor bikes, houses with dangling shutters and peeling paint and stucco, a little intimidating, but we walked safely out to the waterfront

‘View to Etna’ Taormina February 2016

Our hotel is built into the side of a mountain with views toward Mount Etna and the ocean far below. We walk what seems like a thousand steps down into the town through an ancient stone city gate, and along the beautiful main shopping street lined with wonderfully charming shops. We arrive in Piazza IX Aprile, an amazing town square, with a beautiful balcony overlooking the sea far below, and in the distance, a view in one direction of the Greek amphitheatre carved into the hillside. Looking the other way we see Mount Etna rising above the town, and the Duomo and San Guiseppe, a baroque church with a clock tower, all in beautiful, restored, condition and painted in lovely colours.

We try to go into the amphitheatre but it is about to close, so we return to the hotel back up those ‘thousand steps’. We visit the amphitheatre the next morning, with spectacular views from the upper tiers of the well preserved and restored theater below us. The town is spread out along the hillside and beyond, with views of the mountains running down to the coast, and above, Mount Etna with smoke rising from its crater dominating the whole scene.

Government of Ontario Art Collection

“Images at Nightfall #8” was recently selected by the Archives of Ontario for the Government of Ontario OSA Art Collection.

"Strength In Numbers, The CanLit Community" Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library,

“Strength in Numbers, The CanLit Community” Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, January 27 - May 1, 2020

Alan’s hand printed, limited edition book “The Golden Lilies” by PK Page, is part of this exhibition celebrating Canadian Publishing. His book, sketches, and wood engraving illustrations are part of this important exhibition. Catalogue available.

Bound Book Arts Fair December 8, Arts & Letters Club

Alan will be exhibiting and selling his hand printed wood engravings, broadsides and his new limited edition book, “On Spirit Lake” at the Arts & Letters Club December 8, 11-5pm