Newfoundland-based, nationally acclaimed realist painter Mary Pratt is renowned for her beautiful, sensuous still life paintings, Two of these paintings, Glassy Apples and Peach Compote, provided the inspiration for two editions of Japanese woodblock prints developed by Pratt in collaboration with Japanese master printmaker Masato Arikushi of Vancouver. These prints were the primary focus of Mary Pratt: Allusions.

For this project, Pratt chose to limit her selection of images by using a single still-life theme – studies of fruit. The thematic approach employed by the artist provided an overall visual continuity to reinterpret the presentation of common objects in new and engaging ways. Ultimately this process resulted in a series of delightful, creative Japanese woodblock prints, twelve of which werre included in this exhibition.

The exhibition also included eleven process prints produced at various stages in the development of the final works as well as a complete set of the forty woodblocks used in the creation of just one of the prints for the Transformations series. The inclusion of these woodblocks provided a rare opportunity for viewers to appreciate the complexity of the printing process.