Into the box – Wood engraving today

The South London Lettering Association’s first social evening talk for 2017 was from Peter S. Wood. He originally trained as a painter and printer, taught in secondary schools for 40 years including teaching lino cutting, and for the last 3 years has had a studio at St Brides teaching wood engraving. Peter gave a short history of wood engraving and showed some illustrations from William Blake and the Boys Own paper, and told us that in the early days, the picture would be drawn by the artist and then passed on to the engraver.

In the 1990’s Peter had to stop engraving due to failing eyesight but, with the aid of a magnifying glass, was able to resume work in 2004, when he rejoined the Society of Wood Engravers. He showed us several examples of his work and talked about where his inspiration came from. He has paintings and engravings exhibited in the UK and overseas, with works in private and public collections, including Tate Britain and Ashmolean, Oxford.

Peter Wood mixed a lot of information, accompanied by a wonderful selection of slides, with amusing anecdotes which made for a very enjoyable and informative evening.

Jean Thomas