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Wood Engraving Wednesday

This week we present some very rich wood engravings by English artist, educator, and wood engraver Ronald Salmond. Salmond spent the bulk of career as a teacher, serving as art master at Preston Manor School, Middlesex, from 1939-1975, and really did not begin actively making engravings until after his retirement when he was in his sixties. Salmond wrote that he studied

the engravings of John and Paul Nash, Clifford Webb, [and] John Farleigh. . . . It was Clifford Webb’s formalised treatment of trees, buildings and water that gave me a new insight into wood-engraving, whole I greatly admired the freshness and ease with which Eric Ravilious handled his tools, and the wonderful simplicity of his later work.

The engravings shown here were printed as an insert for Hal Bishop’s article “Ronald Salmond - and Old Master,” in Matrix 28, Summer 2009, pp. 33-37, which was printed in an edition of 700 copies. Of the first print shown here, Burford Bridge, Bishop writes, 

In Burford Bridge [Salmond] produced a mature work, the architectural structures an integral composition rather than being part of the disposition of pattern. It is overwhelmingly rich, with an intense ‘busyness’ on the engraved surface. . . . The treatment of light, and the subtle reflections of the bridge in the water gives true depth to the picture without conflicting with the controlled emphasis of the foreground flowers or the rich display of vegetation elsewhere.

The next three prints -- Old Portsmouth, ‘The Hydrogen” at Burnham-on-Crouch, and Hastings -- represent Salmond’s favored subjects from the 1980s, harbor scenes. Salmond writes,

I have always been fascinated with harbours and boats lying on their sides at low tide; their beautiful shapes and lines made fine subjects for engraving . . . the fisherman’s gear and their drying huts ideal for my compositions . . . .

Matrix was printed by John and Rosalind Randle at the Whittington Press in England, and is a donation from our friend Jerry Buff.

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