Artwork:
Bob Cameron Steele. Three Trees in Alignment. Woodcut. 1997.
Three Trees in Alignment unfolds as a layered meditation on landscape, memory, and perception, its title suggesting relationships that extend beyond the single visible tree to include unseen or implied forms across the composition. A solitary tree anchors the upper register with quiet resilience, while beneath it two interconnected scenes dissolve the boundaries between surface and subterranean space, revealing a dense network of carved marks in which figures, roots, and organic forms emerge from and recede into one another.
The stark contrasts of black and white, characteristic of the woodcut process, heighten the tactile rhythm of the carved line, guiding the eye through moments of clarity and ambiguity while emphasizing the physicality of the medium. Rather than offering a fixed narrative or depicting a specific place, the work invites reflection on cycles of growth, memory, and interconnectedness, proposing that the landscape is shaped as much by its hidden structures and layered histories as by what is visible above ground.
Artist:
1925–2018 – Bob Cameron Steele was a Canadian artist, printmaker, educator, and author whose practice was grounded in a lifelong exploration of drawing, printmaking, and visual language. Working across woodcut, linocut, painting, drawing, photography, and graphic arts, Steele’s work reflects a deep engagement with landscape and memory.
Alongside his studio practice, he developed a pioneering philosophy that viewed drawing as a fundamental language—one capable of communicating complex perception, emotion, and understanding beyond the limits of written or spoken words. This conviction shaped both his artwork and his influential writings on children’s drawing, culminating in the founding of DrawNet: The Drawing Network, an initiative dedicated to promoting spontaneous drawing as an essential form of communication and learning. Throughout his career, Steele remained committed to the belief that artistic expression and education were inseparable.
Born in Mervin, Saskatchewan, on January 27, 1925, Robert Cameron Steele served in the RCAF before earning Education and Arts degrees from the University of Saskatchewan. After teaching in rural Saskatchewan, he moved to BC, where he taught music, art, and English in Princeton and Chilliwack, before joining the Vancouver School of Art as an instructor.
In 1962, he was appointed to the University of British Columbia, where he established the graphics program and printmaking studio behind the Scarfe Building and taught printmaking and art education for twenty-eight years, retiring in 1990 as Associate Professor of Art Education.
Steele exhibited widely throughout BC, including at the New Design Gallery, Bau-Xi Gallery, and Burnaby Art Gallery, and participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions over six decades. His work is represented in public and private collections in Canada and internationally, including the Burnaby Art Gallery Permanent Collection.
A prolific author, he published several books on children’s drawing and art education, and his legacy was celebrated in the 2017 volume Drawing as Language: Celebrating the Work of Bob Steele. Steele died on August 2, 2018, leaving an enduring influence on generations of artists, educators, and students through both his creative practice and his transformative contributions to art education.
Deep Dive:
History + demonstration of woodcut printmaking.
More info on DrawNet: The Drawing Network – history, articles, links, etc.
See more of Bob’s work here, Burnaby Art Gallery Permanent Collection.
Foundation:
The Canadian Art Preservation Foundation posts short biographies and information on artists and artwork from its collection in a not-so-subtle attempt to capture your attention and interest in our mission, but we also just want to keep this artwork in view. We are excited about the art we collect and want to share it with you.
CAPF is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the artwork of Canada’s superstar artists for future generations to examine, study and exhibit – the ones you know and the ones you might not know so well. We accept artwork, journals, notes, letters, exhibition catalogues and anything else that might comprise a visual and/or intellectual “portrait” (ahem, please pardon the pun) of a particular artist.
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