This lovely artwork is a limited edition woodcut print produced by the renowned artist John DePol and is a personal Christmas card depicting skaters on a pond with a steepled church in the background Inside it says, Greetings. This engraving has been signed by the artist himself.
Measuring 6 inches in height and 5 inches in width. This small-sized artwork is an original, not a licensed reprint. It was created using the wood engraving production technique that the artist is known for.
Although John DePol is known as a master of wood engraving, he also produced prints by etching with aquatint and drypoint, as well as lithography. His earliest works were etchings with subjects taken from his life as a young man in New York City. Even these early works, done with almost no professional training, show DePol's sense of design, use of light and shadow, and his abiding interest in the lives of ordinary people. The University of Delaware Library holds the only known collection of DePol's early etchings.
Throughout his life, John DePol returned to the New York City of his birth for inspiration. Many of his earliest artwork was of the lower Manhattan neighborhood he grew up in. Over the years, he continued to make engravings of the buildings, skyline and neighborhoods of the city.
I personally knew Mr. De Pol and was invited to his house in New Jersey where we met him and his wife. We returned there many times and was treated to a tutorial of his engraving technique and process.