Tom Forrestall's lithograph print for Beaverbrook Art Gallery's 50th Anniversary

I wanted to share an image of the lithograph print that dad made for the 50th anniversary of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick. An old friend of dad's, Bernard Riordon, is the Director and CEO of this museum and he asked dad to do this commission as a fund raiser.

Beaverbrook Art Gallery Special 50th Anniversary Commemorative Limited Edition Print

By Tom Forrestall, ONS, CM   Title: So Many Look and So Few See (2009)

Size: 20” x 30”     Medium: Lithograph – 5-Colour (Edition of 50)

Master printer: Jacques Arseneault

Price: $1,000 unframed.

In the words of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's Director Bernard Riordon, "This limited edition lithograph is a commemorative print by internationally recognized Canadian artist, Tom Forrestall, ONS, CM, and has been created to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.  The print is titled, So Many Look and So Few See, a reference to Lord Beaverbrook and his vision in establishing a world-class gallery for New Brunswick and Canada in Fredericton.  The artist worked directly for Lord Beaverbrook when the Gallery opening in 1959 and he remembers the effect that this personal contact had on him as an artist.  Tom remembers Beaverbrook’s bushy eyebrows, hair on his face and the impression of his eyes as are now expressed in the lithograph.

     Tom completed a painting of a similar subject from the upper floor of the New Brunswick Legislature facing the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the Saint John River.  Also, the artist researched archive images of Lord Beaverbrook and viewed many of the 13 portraits that are in the Gallery’s collection including the Jacob Epstein sculpture of Lord Beaverbrook. 

     For many years Forrestall has had affiliations with ‘eyes’ in his drawings, sketches and paintings and the ‘eyes’ are normally many times life-size.  While the artist has had affiliations with other objects such as arrows, balls and spears, the “eye” has always been a consistent motif.  As Tom says in reference to the current lithograph and Lord Beaverbrook, “So many look and so few see”, Tom is expressing the passion that Lord Beaverbrook had for New Brunswick and Canada and his gift of the Gallery and its contents to the people of the Province."

We lived there for the first thirteen years of my life, and Fredericton holds a lot of happy and wonderful family memories for all of us. As one of the the two most important cultural centers in Fredericton, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery was a place we often visited, both as a family and on school trips. I have a particular strong memory of mom and dad and the family going to a black tie opening there of an exhibition of dad's, and mom was wearing a really stylish turquoise 2-piece hot pants (it was the 70's) and a full-length slit-sided skirt outfit with lace up patent leather white sandals, which I deeply coveted. Mom had the opportunity to travel a lot and brought fabulous clothes back from her travels, which she wore to events around town. Natalie LeBlanc Forrestall was a style trend setter in Fredericton, in her day and dad was always proud to have mom there with him on his arm.  

-Monica Forrestall

Tom Forrestall creates a print for the 50th Anniversary of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery

Recently my dad, Tom Forrestall, was asked by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery to create a lithograph to commemorate their 50th anniversary this year. Dad's history with the Beaverbrook goes back 50 years, when he took a job working as an assistant to the curator of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. It was dad's first job after graduating from college and marrying our mother, Natalie. He has very fond memories of those early days of the museums history, and the support he got working there from the staff, and from Lord Beaverbrook himself. Dad traveled to Moncton, New Brunswick to work with a master print maker there, Jacques Arsenault, who has a small, yet very specialized studio for the creation of lithographs. It was the first lithograph dad had done in 25 years. The last lithographs dad  created in Rome,while  visiting there with our mom. He had very fond memories of the process of working with these talented and technically savvy printmakers. The image of the print is of the Beaverbrook Art gallery with a conceptual addition of a watching eye, meaning to represent the museum being under the watchful eye of its founder Lord Beaverbrook. The prints are to be sold to help raise funds for the museum. ($1000. each; http://www.beaverbrookartgallery.org/main-e.asp).