Banff National Park Gallery of Fine Art and Photography

M. Kathleen Cardiff CPE, ASA

printmaker

b.1913

Driftwood, Rocky Mountain House, 1956

silkscreen/paper, 3/19

8x10"

Note: inscribed Cardiff '56 l.l., titled l.l., numbered, signed, dated l.r.; exhibited at Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton Exhibition of Painting, Prints, and Photography April 28 - May 4, 1957. Dated verso: March 30, 1957.

$525.00 CDN

Biography

Along with other early printmakers such as George Weber (1907-2002) and Annora Brown (1899-1987), Kathleen Cardiff helped form the strong foundation of today’s printmaking practice in Alberta. She attempted to catch the feeling of the land and its features; she used the print medium to give expression to her art. One of Cardiff’s favorite motifs is the close up view of tree trunks and their relation to the landscape. Her love of nature is readily apparent in her work. She worked with many printmaking techniques, for example, in the early 1950s, using the linocut technique, she was involved in printing Christmas cards. But the majority of her work was in serigraphy; she learned silkscreen and serigraphic techniques from George Weber in 1954. She stopped making prints in 1977 after having done 129 editions with a total of 1039 prints using almost all of the basic printmaking techniques.

Unbeknown to Cardiff, Weber submitted one of her early silkscreen prints to the annual Canadian Society of Painters, Etchers, and Engravers (CPE) exhibition where it was accepted and Kathleen became a long-time member of the organization. She was one of the founding members of the Western Chapter of the CPE. George Weber and James Agrell-Smith, another prominent Alberta printmaker, were the first president and secretary respectively. Kathleen Cardiff lived in Edmonton until 1959, after which she moved to Toronto where she became very active with the CPE, serving as the last president (1974-1976) before it amalgamated with the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists (CSGA). Kathleen was a member of the Alberta Society of Artists from the 1950s to the 1980s.