Sybil Andrews
Sybil Andrews
An internationally renowned artist famous for her modernist linocuts, Andrews was also a gentle, kind, loyal and unpretentious person. Her character manifested not only in her relationships with people but also in the beautiful art she created during her lifetime. Read more
Andrews was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, on April 19, 1898, in an apartment above the hardware store owned by her grandparents. Sybil was the third of five children born to her mother, Beatrice Martha Trigg Andrews.
In 1947 she and her husband, Walter Morgan, emigrated to Canada to reside on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. They would live in their oceanside cottage on Georgia Strait for the remainder of their lives. Andrews was elected to the Society of Canadian Painters, Etchers and Engravers in 1951 when her linocut Indian Dance was selected as the presentation print. There, as well as teaching and continuing her own art, in 1975 she completed numerous major works including The Banner of St Edmund.
The Glenbow Museum in Canada is a major centre for the study of Andrews’ work, with a collection of over 1,000 examples including all her famous colour linocuts and the original linoleum blocks, paintings in oil and watercolour, drawings, drypoint etchings, sketchbooks, and personal papers. In recent years her works have sold extremely well at auction, and though record prices have been achieved primarily within Canada, her renown is truly international.