John Steil

Artist Profile

Home
Public Art Projects
Counting to 1000
Globes
Chap Books
Public Art in Vancouver
Paintings
Landscapes
Haiku Linocuts
13 Ways of Looking
Crows
Shows
Gallery Photos
Studio
Artist Profile

I enjoy the outdoors and spend a lot of time there; so the landscapes where I travel, wander, and hike were an early source of inspiration. I started to draw in order to better understand what I was seeing, to make myself more observant. I also wanted to remind myself of what I saw and to share these places. It is respect for the places that hosted, humbled, and awed me. Most of my landscapes were drawn on paper with watercolour crayons--I fell in love with the vividness and blending ability of watercolour crayons even though they are very time-consuming.

I now explore other themes and techniques, particularly acrylics, linocuts, ink drawing and collage. With acrylics, I did a series of birds in trees, from the shy nuthatch to the noisy crow. With small linocuts, I illustrated a poem, 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' by Wallace Stevens, and illustrated a series of haiku I’ve written. I painted and drew on a series of world globes.  I create chap books about my art and poetry and what I come across in the world around me.  Recently, I've focused on two projects.  The first is a series of abstract ink drawings with an urban theme. The second are works, 4 ft x 4 ft, in acrylics and collage based on a series of plot structures.  

jjks_websmall.jpg

I am also a community planning consultant who has worked throughout Western and Northern Canada. After growing up at the northern edge of the prairies, I now live in Vancouver at the vortex of Railtown, Chinatown, Gastown, Downtown Eastside and the port. I hike, bike, bird, and play defense at Saturday morning hockey.  I am on the Board of the Vines Environmental Arts Festival and the Board of the Eastside Culture Crawl Society. 
 
 

john@johnsteil.com or by phone at 604-816-JOHN (5646)

johnandcabinet.jpg