A Calendar of Days http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Calendar-of-Days-Wood-Engravers-Network-Illustrated-by/9780889843363

"A Calendar of Days (2011)" will be the first in an on-going collaboration between the Wood Engravers Network (WEN) which includes members in the US, UK, Europe and Asia, as well as Canada, and a small, but distinguished Canadian literary press, the Porcupine's Quill (PQL) which has long been recognized for its interest in the reproduction of wood engravings, its technical expertise in their reproduction in an offset format, and their dissemination, worldwide.

About the Author

Wesley Bates grew up in British Columbia and studied fine art at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. He concentrated in painting, printmaking and drawing and studied under painter Lawren Harris Jr. and printer David Silverberg. After graduation, Bates moved to Hamilton with his wife and young daughter, and soon found himself learning the process of wood engraving when a friend gave him a set of gravers, the tools of the trade, as a gift. He has illustrated the work of a number of authors, such as Timothy Findley and Russell Smith. He currently lives in Clifford, Ontario and works out of his own studio on the Main Street of the village.A member of the Society of Wood Engravers (England), Gerard Brender a Brandis has produced hundreds of drawings, wood engravings and watercolours of flowering plants, many of which were studied in his own garden. These images have appeared in books, including Wood, Ink and Paper, A Gathering of Flowers from Shakespeare and A Wood Engraver's Alphabet (all published by The Porcupine's Quill) as well as in his own handmade editions. His work is represented in the collections of the Royal Botanical Gardens (Hamilton, Ontario), the Missouri Botanic Garden, the Arnold Arboretum and the Hunt Botanical Library. His garden and his studio are located in Stratford, Ontario.Andy English describes himself as a miniaturist, for whom the small scale and precision of wood engraving is a welcoming comfort. His work is rural, and it is autobiographic, and Andy makes no apologies for that. The artist was born in 1956 at Denver, Norfolk. He studied at the universities of Reading and London. In 1991 he produced his first wood engravings, likening the process to 'remembering, rather than learning'. In 1993 he was elected to the Cambridge Drawing Society; and in 1997 to the Society of Wood Engravers. In 2007 Andy produced his first hand-made book at the Oak Apple Press. In 2009 he was Guest Artist at the Wood Engravers' Network Annual Workshop in Chicago. In the U K he has published with The Isle Handpress, Primrose Hill Press, Westbury and Chatto & Windus. He has also published frequently with Barbarian Press (Canada), the Society of Wood Engravers (UK) and the Wood Engravers' Network (USA). He has also exhibited internationally, in Italy, France, Bulgaria and Uganda as well as in Canada and the United States.James Horton, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been an instructor of art and graphic design for thirty-nine years, while also practicing letterpress book arts and printmaking. He specializes in printing history, antique machinery and processes that played a key role in the history of graphic arts. Jim learned wood engraving from the last commercial engraving company in the United States. Jim is also the hub of an international organization called the Wood Engravers' Network (www.woodengravers.net). His work was recently published in the international anthology, An Engravers' Globe (Primrose Hill Press, London). He is an honorary member of the British Society of Wood Engraving and is now included in the SWE travelling exhibitions. Jim teaches studio art and printmaking at Greenhills School, Hollander's School of Book Arts, The John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, Frogman's Print & Paper Workshops at the University of South Dakota and the Augusta Heritage Center, in Elkins, West Virginia.Rosemary Kilbourn was born in Toronto in 1931. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1953, at which time she received a medal for drawing and painting. Shortly after graduation she travelled to London, England, where she worked and studied until 1956. Over the years, Rosemary Kilbourn has been active as a teacher, a wood engraver and a stained-glass artist. As an engraver she has created illustrations for a number of books. Among these are The Firebrand by William Kilbourn, published in 1956. She produced wood engravings for the 1958 edition of Farley Mowat's The Desperate People, for another of William Kilbourn's works entitled The Elements Combined (1960) and for The Shadow of the Year (1976) by Florence Wyles. One of Kilbourn's engravings was also reproduced as a 17-cent Canadian memorial author's stamp in 1979. Since 1958 Kilbourn's engravings have been exhibited at the Graphics Society. They appeared in 'Prints and Drawings' held at the National Gallery in 1966, and were exhibited there again in 1969 in a show entitled 'How Prints are Made'. Her engravings were displayed at Regis College between 1963 and 1966. She exhibited at the British Society of Relief Block Prints from 1973 to 1975, and participated in the Canadian Biennial of Prints and Drawings (1978). In addition, Kilbourn has exhibited her wood engravings from 1959 to 1987 in various group and solo shows at McMaster University, at the Sisler Gallery, the Lewis Gallery in Deep River, the Brampton Library and Art Gallery, the Alice Peck Gallery in Burlington and the Grimsby Art Gallery. Her engravings are found in major museums and galleries across the country. Among these are the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Waterloo Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, BC. They are also represented at McMaster University, the University of Guelph and the Universities of Regina and Calgary. Rosemary Kilbourn was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1977. She is currently a resident of Caledon East, Ontario.Abigail Rorer studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, and is active as an illustrator, using drawing, painting and etching as well as wood engraving. Her work has appeared in books from Houghton-Mifflin, Henry Holt, Little Brown, Counterpoint, Norton, The University of California Press and many others, as well as in private press editions from Colin Press, Catawba Press and The Lone Oak Press. Three of the works she illustrated for other publishers were by Henry David Thoreau, an exposure that would prove influential. Abigail Rorer began making woodcuts in high school, and went on to explore with fascination first the wood cuts and engravings of Durer, and later of the German Expressionists, particularly Ernst Barlach and Ernst Ludwig Kirschner. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of her engravings are inspired by old daguerrotypes and photographs, but Rorer is also devoted gardener, and has made many superb engravings of flowers and trees, and especially of succulents, a major interest. In 2009 she won the Gregynog Prize at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair for her Mimpish Squinnies, a collection of colour wood engravings showing unusual botanical specimens.Jim Westergard is the custodian of an old, spoiled and pampered, Vandercook SP-15 proofing press which answers to the name, 'Spanish Fly'. He is the author and illustrator of Mother Goose Eggs, sunnyside up (Porcupine's Quill). His wood engravings and drawings have been exhibited internationally. Jim is an elected member of the Society of Wood Engravers (UK); and an elected member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (UK). Jim is also a member of the Wood Engravers Network (US); the Fine Press Book Association (UK, US & CA); the Boston Printmakers (US) and the Alcuin Society (CA). He lives in Red Deer, Alberta.