Harry (1927-1995) and Jessie Webb (1930-2011) were among an important and influential group of artists, poets and jazz musicians working in Vancouver and the North Shore in the 1950s. They met at the Vancouver School of Art and worked collaboratively for nearly a decade on a series of innovative progressive prints made with linoleum blocks. Their works were featured in exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, The Burnaby Art Gallery and in print through-out the 1950s. They were very involved in Vancouver’s local jazz scene designing posters for the legendary Cellar Jazz Club. Harry Webb later became a landscape architect and helped found the BC Society of Landscape Architects. His company designed the Park & Tilford Gardens in the North Shore, The Bayshore Inn, Centennial Square in Victoria etc. Jessie Webb would go on to write poetry and design murals. Their early work was featured in Vancouver typographer Robert Reid’s pm magazine. The couple were also featured in Leonard Forest’s 1964 National Film Board’s In Search of Innocence, a documentary film profiling Vancouver artists and jazz musicians.Their fascinating story is being told by their daughter for the first time.

Adrienne Brownis the daughter and of Harry and Jessie Webb. She is a landscape architect, garden designer and artist. She is the Creator/Editor of the Web Atlas of Landscape Architecture in BC, www.sitelines.org/webatlas. Her articles and book reviews have appeared in Landscapes/Paysages, SABMag, Sitelines, and the Vancouver Sun. Born in Vancouver, and educated at the BC Institute of Technology, and Simon Fraser University, she is Past-President of the British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects, and is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. Adrienne lives in North Vancouver with her husband David and their daughters. This is her first book.

Adrienne Brown's profile page

Robert R. Reid's profile page