Tobie Steinhouse, well-known printmaker and painter, began her studies in Montreal with Anne Savage. She later studied at the Art Students' League in New York and with William Hayter at the printing Atelier 17 in Paris. She participated in such prestigious exhibits as the Salon d'Automne the Salon de la Jeune Peinture and the Salon de l'Art Libre in Paris and enjoyed her first solo exhibition at the Galerie Lara Vincy in 1957. Returning to Canada, Steinhouse was a founding member of L 'Atelier Libre de Recherches Graphiques and La Guilde Graphique. She was the last president of the Canadian Group of Painters and was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1972.

Steinhouse has won many honours, including the Sterling Trust Award of the Society of Canadian Painters, Etchers and Engravers, The Centennial Medal of Canada in 1967, and most recently the Purchase Award from the Thomas More Institute in 1999. She continues her work and interest in the art of Japanese calligraphy, exhibiting regularly with the School of Japanese Calligraphy of Quebec.

She has had numerous solo exhibitions in Canada and abroad and has participated in such international exhibitions as the Print Biennials in Bradford, England, Chile, Scotland, Venezuela, France, Italy, Switzerland and the USA. Her work is represented in many private and public collections around the world, including the National Gallery in Ottawa, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Montreal Contemporary Art Museum, Le Musée du Québec, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Ministries of External Affairs in Ottawa and Cultural Affairs in Quebec.

Artist's Statement
The Caress of Memory

Giving life to a simple sheet of metal; accepting the challenge to confer to it a certain meaning and an individual atmosphere through the colour, the form and the content - this is fascinating for me. I love etching. The process fascinates me. Of course, I also do watercolour, drawing and oil painting but again and again I return to etching.

Poetry is a vital source of inspiration for me, a way of communicating inner visions and feelings. It creates a world of serenity, leaving my reveries free to roam while safeguarding my thoughts.

Transient fashions and tendencies of the moment are fleeting. For the artist there is only one truth: to be honest with ourselves. It is a philosophy that comes with many years of practicing the "métier," with maturity, with the experiences of life itself, with a personalized sensitivity permitting the expression of one's own unique vision.

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