An Artist's Garden

Joanne Wotypka is a branch library assistant in the Cameron Library and
the University of Alberta.

The craft of the woodblock print is alive and well in Canada, and An
Artist’s Garden is proof of this. Brender а Brandis’s
two-dimensional prints demonstrate his mastery of line and form, his
ability to capture the essence of his subjects in crisp, black-and-white
detail. Carving onto boxwood blanks, he is able to obtain astonishingly
fine lines and almost photographic detail in the resulting prints. Small
wonder that he is a member of the elite Society of Wood Engravers and is
in the fortunate position of being able to make a living doing what he
loves.

An Artist’s Garden is one of those rare books that demands the
reader’s time; a stroll through its pages is reminiscent of an
afternoon in Halifax’s Public Gardens, where the whole point of the
visit is to linger and admire. For those who aspire to try their hand at
this art, the book shows just how much is possible with this medium; for
those who simply enjoy the beauty of wonderful pictures, it provides a
much-needed respite from our text-laden existence. Though the focus is
primarily on floral motifs, there are several other prints here that
show the author’s versatility, ranging from the canine composition
“His master’s horn” to the bibliophile’s favorite,
“Reading.”

In this day of clip art and computer cut-and-paste, An Artist’s
Garden is a reminder of what the creative human mind can accomplish with
only basic tools (though admittedly not many people have an 1882 Albion
press). For the artist (working in any medium), the book is an
inspiration; for the nonartist, it is a work of imagination.