Through this blog I have "met" a number of remarkable people and family members and friends of artists I have featured on this blog, from Tokyo to Vienna to Los Angeles to Sydney. I am often astonished at the generosity of people who write to me, and it is clear through the blog what exactly my aesthetic is. I recently received an email from Gary Ratushniak, who studied with Sybil Andrews for over a decade in Canada in her later years and even had the good fortune of exhibiting with her both during her lifetime and after she died. She became both a mentor and a very close friend to him but more than that he also met Bernard Rice in the mid-80s after he went to London. Rice taught him some woodblock techniques which he still uses. Over the years they both became good friends.
Gary grew up in British Columbia which is where Sybil Andrews moved after she left England.
Over a ten-year period Ratushniak studied drawing, painting and printmaking under Andrews, with an emphasis on the techniques of printmaking, and especially the art of the linocut. In the course of this decade a deep friendship grew between the two, and Andrews gave voice to this dedicating her book The Artist's Kitchen with the words "For Gary Ratushniak, who shared our great discussions".
I think these works show mastery not just of colour and application, but also of line and movement. If the goal was to imbue his work with painterly qualities, he did it. There is a kind of depth that is in these works whereas in many of the Grosvenor School works there is a sweep and swoop of line and colour, but depth was not a main concern. I like both, because both speak of the same process but a different execution. His works are outstanding and visually exciting. Enjoy.
3 comments:
Hi clive thanks for this post. I bought one of his prints (fireworks), many years ago, but new little about him... how fascinating... with a little help from you it is obvious to me now that he worked with Sybil. thanks d
Clive,
I'm sorry to go "off topic" in your comments area, but I've got a bit of a crisis going on regarding print identification and you may be just the man to know what's what.
A few years ago I was at a general sales auction and bid on a mixed lot of framed prints. Mostly fairly bog standard etchings, but there were three framed prints in the lot that had taken my eye as being rather more interesting pieces. I assumed at the time that they were linocuts and couldn't read the artist's signature, but figured they were worth a punt simply on an aesthetic basis. Anyway, I won the lot and was quite pleased. I didn't have hanging space for them, so I handed them over to my mother, who also liked them. We couldn't figure out the artist from that day to this. Anyway, I happened to be talking to my mother today and she'd figured out that the first name was Oscar. We'd convinced ourselved that the surname also began with "O", but I couldn't find an artist on that basis. It just struck me today that the "O" may be a "D" and they look like they are by Oscar Droege. However, I haven't been able to find the specific images on the interweb and they are editioned bottom left from an edition of 75, which seems not to tie into the artist's standard practise. Any thoughts? All input cheerfully and gratefully received.
the art is a creativity the art is in human...........
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