Norman Bay

This 1923 print depicts Norman Bay, likely a coastal or lakeside location in the Canadian landscape that Walter J. Phillips explored throughout his career. The bay's waters and surrounding terrain provided the kind of subject that Phillips excelled at rendering in the Japanese woodcut medium: expanses of water reflecting sky colors, rocky or forested shorelines, and the interplay of horizontal planes that bays and inlets naturally create. Phillips adapted the Japanese technique of layered color printing to capture the specific qualities of Canadian geography, where bodies of water are often surrounded by coniferous forest and the light takes on a clarity distinct from the softer atmosphere of Japan or England. The 1923 date places this work early in Phillips's mature period, when he had already mastered the woodcut technique and was applying it systematically to the Canadian landscape.