Deep Valley 2007

Ivan Eyre made 'Deep Valley’ using printmaking. There’s a real sense of quiet observation here. Imagine Eyre layering those colours, one after another, building up the hills like geological strata. I wonder if Eyre was thinking about the Canadian landscape as a kind of theatre, where these forms—trees and river—are actors on a stage? The process of printmaking is so meticulous, each layer demanding patience and precision. I wonder what was going through Eyre’s mind as he worked? Was he thinking about Japanese woodblock prints, which have a similar kind of flat, graphic quality? The yellow grass in the foreground is particularly special, providing a spark of contrast that enlivens the whole composition. Thinking about it now, artists engage in a conversation across time, each building on the ideas of those who came before. And what they leave behind, that is an invitation for us to interpret and reimagine.