Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Graham A. Scholes, a resident of Sidney B.C., was born in Toronto on December 28th, 1933. He is a well-known artist, author, and educator with a reputation for both his work in watercolours and Japanese woodblock print-making. Scholes graduated from a 4 year Arts course at Western Technical School in Toronto and subsequently designed stage sets for the Erskine Gilbert and Sullivan Operatic Society for 6 years. He worked as a commercial artist in Toronto and Montreal until 1977 when he turned fulltime to the creation of fine art. Scholes’ international reputation was established with the publication of his book “Watercolour and How”, published by Watson-Guptill, New York, which is distributed world wide.

In 1993, Scholes took a course with master printmaker Noboru Sawai on woodblock printmaking. This new medium was an instant inspiration and catalyst. In the fall of 1993, Scholes started a series of prints depicting the lighthouses along the rugged coast of British Columbia. To date he has completed 32 prints of the 35 manned lighthouses still in existence.

Scholes has mastered this challenging medium like few others today. He employs traditional methods including the hand carving of Basswood blocks, one for each colour. The artist uses a Baren to burnish the paper which has been placed on the woodblock to achieve the transfer of colour. His prints often employ as many as 12 blocks and they are run in exceedingly small editions of 7 to 75 prints. The small variations that accrue from print to print, as a result of the “hand made” process ensures that each is subtly unique even though a multiple. It is this highly important distinction that separates these artist prints from the ubiquitous photo-mechanical prints that have dominated the market over the last number of years.

Nicholas Tuele
Acting Director/Chief Curator
August 1999