Down on the Labrador - An Exhibition of works by David Blackwood

April 17 to May 10, 2004 at Abbozzo Gallery

Gull Rock Breaking
2001 - Etching and Aquatint
13 X 18 inches (Plate Size)
Larger View

The Labrador Sea has historically been the life-blood of the traditional fishing economy of Newfoundland. In fact, the earliest records of a cod fishery ‘down on the Labrador’ date from the sixteenth century. In hundreds of isolated out ports, including my own village of Wesleyville, the rhythm of communal life was dominated by the annual departure of the Labrador fishing fleet in spring and the return of the ships, after a hard summer’s work, in the fall. The fishing stations of Labrador were a second home for many Bonavista North fishermen, and tales of doings in places like Domino, Mugford Tickle, Cape Chidley and Cape Harrison provided yarns for many a winter’s night in net lofts all over the island. The region has acquired, over generations, its own distinctive history and a rich tradition of folklore which remains largely unexplored.

Outward Bound forthe Labrador by David Blackwood

Outward Bound for the Labrador
1985 - Etching and Aquatint
17 X 36 Inched (Plate Size)
Larger View

Each year in May, shortly after the sealing fleet had returned from the ice fields, preparations for the Labrador fishing season would begin. Ships would be outfitted and provisioned, crews put “in collar”, and the Wesleyville fleet (numbering some sixty-three schooners in the 1920’s) would depart for the Labrador coast, joining up to two thousand other ships under sail. The voyage from Bonavista North to the Labrador was often a perilous one. The schooners had to navigate through a maze of arctic ice slowly drifting southwards on the Labrador Current. In addition, extremely bad weather and dense fog often added to the difficulties of sailing north. When they finally reached their destination, the schooners would anchor in sheltered bays and set their cod traps. The ideal situation was to have ‘rooms’ down on the Labrador; fishing stations where fish could be taken ashore, salted, dried, and then brought home. My own family had rooms at Cape Harrison for this purpose. Other schooners salted their catch in the hold, and usually returned to their home ports towards the end of August where, after the fish had been ‘made’ (sun-dried by members of the crew and their families), they would be sold to the merchant.

Study for Daybreak, the Labrador Sea
2003 - pencil on paper
16 X 20 inches
Larger View

The Flora S Nickerson Home from the Labrador by David Blackwood

The Flora S Nickerson Home from the Labrador
1979 - Etching and Aquatint
11 X 14 inches (Plate Size)
Larger View

Study for Cape Harrison by David Blackwood

Study for Cape Harrison, Labrador Sea
2004 - pencil on paper
7 x 12 inches.
Larger View

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