John Steil
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Artist

Artist Profile

I enjoy the outdoors and spend a lot of time there; so the landscapes where I travel, wander, and hike are an obvious 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 with friends. It is respect for the places that hosted, humbled, and awed me.

Most of my landscapes are 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 techniques, including acrylics, linocuts, and collage. With acrylics, I’ve been focusing on birds in trees, from the shy nuthatch to the noisy crow. With small linocuts, I’ve illustrated a poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens, and am illustrating a series of haiku I’ve written.

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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 between Chinatown, Gastown, and the port. I hike, bike, bird, and play defense at Saturday morning hockey.

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