The Devil's Artisan

A ROGUES' GALLERY
OF THE CANADIAN BOOK AND PRINTING ARTS

Alan Stein

Alan Stein, RCA, is a leading Canadian painter and printmaker. He is a graduate of the Burleighfield School of Art, England, where he studied under Patrick Reyntiens, OBE, head of fine art at the Central School of Art and Design, London. Stein's work concentrates on pastels and charcoal on paper. In 1988 he established a painting studio and The Church Street Press in Parry Sound, Ontario.

His limited-edition books are all hand printed by Stein and include his own illustrations in wood engraving or stone lithography. There have been ten titles to date, many of which have been produced in collaboration with distinguished Canadian authors such as Michael Crummey, Douglas LePan, P.K. Page and Al Purdy. The Church Street Press titles are widely admired and collected and have received several Alcuin Society awards for excellence in book design in Canada.

The photo of Stein in his cottage studio documents part of his work practice. During the summer he and his wife, Charlotte, move to a cottage on an island in Georgian Bay north of Parry Sound. In the photo he is working on the wood engraving proofs for his 2018 book, On Spirit Lake: Georgian Bay Stories. Behind Stein, on the wall, are glimpses of several of the larger charcoal drawings that he made first. These were later reduced to 5x7 inches and the images were engraved onto the blocks. Stein engraved all the blocks and made proofs of them at the cottage studio on a small hand cylinder press. The editions for the books themselves were printed by Stein on a Vandercook in his Parry Sound studio later in the fall.

For more information on Alan Stein and The Church Street Press see: http://alan-stein.squarespace.com/hand-printed/ (accessed January 23, 2021).