Mary Curry, printmaker, was born in Vancouver, B.C. and has lived in Aylmer, Quebec for over forty five years.She studied at the Ottawa School of Art- oi1 painting with Larry Halpin for two years, and etching with Hilda Schreier for five years. In 1975-76, while she and her husband lived in Kyoto, Japan, she studied for one year with woodblock print artist Tomikichiro Tokuriki, the traditional Japanese method of creating woodblock prints. She also studied calligraphy and brush painting with Shinen Tanaka. From 1994 to 1999, Mary studied oriental brush painting and calligraphy with Tomoko Kodama. In 1995 and 1997, she attended five-day workshops in Chinese brush painting with Ning Yeh at Cohasset, Massasschusetts.

Etching Gallery

Woodblock Gallery

Although a print may be a work of art, the process of print-making is a craft, and there are many ways to go about making a print. I produced etchings on my press for 20 years, and gave up working with acids and solvents and oilbased inks, after studying woodblock printmaking for a year in Japan. I also studied oriental brush painting and calligraphy, and continue to do so.
My woodcuts are created in the traditional Japanese manner, carved in basswood or other woods for texture. They are printed in small editions using water-based inks on hand-made Japanese paper. I like to incorporate the grain of the wood as part of the image and work from the Japanese aesthetic of the greatest effect from the least means. I have had work shown in juried exhibitions in Aylmer, Ottawa, Toronto, Kingston, and Brantford; and have works in collections in Aylmer, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon.My prints are in collections in Quebec (Lotto Quebec), Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Oregon, U.S. and California, U.S.
At present, I have a work in this year's Summer Solstice exhibition at I 'Imagier (June 2005)