Corrida #2

Saul Field, 1976, Compotina Print on Paper

Saul Field was a printmaker, painter, multimedia artist, filmmaker, and folklorist. Field and his artist wife, Jean Townsend, invented the acidless “Compotina” plate for printmakers which produces rich and varied texture. This allowed Field to achieve colourful, hand pulled graphics suited to his exuberant style. Field used his “Compotina” plate in creating his limited edition portfolios of embossed engravings focused on the legends of multicultural groups in Canada. His engravings have been used to illustrate books in Canada and the United States.

He was a Fellow of Calumet College at York University, and he was an inspired teacher. From 1971-1972, he was artist-in-residence at Scarborough College, University of Toronto. His work was largely figurative. He was fascinated by the use of distortion, colour, and texture to better express a given theme and by the use of abstract expressions to heighten the mood or tempo of that theme. According to Field, “art should go beyond the mere description of that which is seen or heard - it should illuminate that which is felt.”

Born: Montreal, Quebec, Canada 1912
Died: 1987