As a young artist, he began with water-colours, moved to etching, and then desired to meld the two genres by creating coloured prints using wood blocks. In 1924 he went to England to learn from master printmakers including the man who Phillips considered the "most important living technician" in colour woodcuts, Yoshijiro Urushibara.
Taking his new-found skills back to the Canadian prairies, Phillips applied the woodcut process in expressing the solid, vast landscape. His works struck a profound chord in viewers and were widely sought. In 1926, Phillips published his Technique of the Colour Woodcut, and he was one of very few artists of the period who could make a living from art.
His work, publications, and his teachings in Winnipeg, Calgary and Banff influenced many artists across Canada. Phillips's 1930 woodcut print, York Boat on Lake Winnipeg, depicts a group of men in a small boat that seems to thread itself through churning waters. The yellow sail is filled with wind and Phillips gives the boat a wonderful sense of force by the grace of his lines.
It is an exhilarating piece for the viewer. Phillips's hybrid of Asian and European styles is imposed upon a fresh and threatening landscape. There is both a sense of tension and freedom. Whether it was his intention or merely his instinct, Phillips produced a visual metaphor of modern Canada. Michael J. Gribbon of the National Gallery of Canada, who once organized a travelling exhibition of Phillips's work, wrote that "in his watercolours, and most especially in his colour woodcuts, he crystallized an atmospheric essence uniquely Canadian. Consequently, Phillips's oeuvres, whether in publications or as works of art, cannot be dismissed lightly. They must be recognized for what they are a significant factor in the evolution of the Canadian graphic arts".
The National Gallery of Canada holds two copies from this 150-print run. Additional copies are to be found in other major Canadian collections.
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Hodgins Art Auctions
Walter J. Phillips Web Site
Emily Carr and Contemporaries Interpret Coastal Villages
House of the Gulls
Planting a Zunuk
Karlukwees, B.C.
Shacks on the Beach, Karlukwees
Thunderbird, Alert Bay
Alert Bay
Untitled
Mamalilicoola, B.C.
The Clothesline, Mamalilicoola
Ruin, Tsadsisnukomi
Royal Bank of Canada Financial Group
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