Artwork of the Week - 4th November 2014

Sybil Andrews - Fall of the Leaf

Sybil Andrews is an internationally acclaimed artist famous for the linocuts she created from the late 1920’s through to 1988. We are delighted to have a fantastic collection of Limited Edition Prints available from Sybil Andrews, and, with new additions just added. Each of the fine art prints is a limited edition of 850 and is hand numbered and hand embossed.  To view the full collection Union Art has to offer click our Sybil Andrews link here.

                                                                       

Fall of the Leaf is a linocut from 1934, it's one of Sybil Andrews most loved prints. The artwork has fan-like treetops and high fields that swirl to create a geometry in the print. The piece features workingmen engaging in hard physical labour. She created a number of linocuts depicting the agricultural life of her birth place, Bury St. Edmunds.  A stunning piece of work that is now available as a Limited Edition Giclee Print on 310gsm thick cotton rag paper.

Sybil Andrews was born in 1898, as a child she loved to draw and paint, she wanted to attend art school but unfortunately her family didn't have the funds to pay the tuition fees. Instead she apprenticed as a welder and worked in an airplane factory, this was during World War I. While doing this Sybil was able to study art and by the end of the war she became an art teacher. She enjoyed this profession and it became her lifetime career where she inspired many students over the years.

In 1922, Sybil had acquired the funds to register at Heatherley's School of Fine Art in London. Upon completion of her course of studies, Sybil worked as a secretary at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art. Sybil used her earnings to pay the tuition to take courses at the "Grosvenor". She was taught by Claude Flight who gave linocut classes. It was there that Sybil developed an interest in coloured linocuts. She met Cyril Power and he also influenced her work greatly. They shared a workshop for awhile and collaborated on commissions where they would jointly sign their work with the pseudonym 'Andrew Power'.

At the end of World War II Sybil Andrews decided to leave Britain to set up home in Canada. There she purchased a cottage on Vancouver Island and set up an art studio to create and teach art. The cottage remained Sybil's home and work place for the rest of her life.

Before her death in 1992, Sybil donated a large amount of her artwork she created in Canada to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta. Most of the artwork completed in England was bequeathed to the Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St. Edmunds.