Canadian Artist of the Day

Chill November

Tom Thomson 1916

Canadian Artist of the Day

 Tom Thomson. "In the Northland". 1915

Canadian Artist of the Day

 Tom Thomson. "Northern Lights". About 1916-1917

Canadian Artist of the Day

Summer Day

Tom Thomson 1915

Canadian Artist of the Day

July 8 marked the 105th anniversary of Tom Thomson's mysterious passing in Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park, his favourite painting location.
Arthur Lismer described Thomson as someone who "sought the wilderness, never seeking to tame it, but only to draw from it, its magic of tangle and season."
An accomplished outdoorsman, fisherman, and canoeist, he spent the last years of his life working as a guide at Algonquin, a lifestyle that freed him to work in the natural setting he loved and painted.
The landscape paintings he created during this time established a distinctly Canadian art style and an image of the Ontario wilderness that endures today.

 Tom Thomson (1877–1917), Summer Day, 1915, oil on board, 21.6 x 26.8 cm, Gift of Mr. R.A. Laidlaw, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1966.15.18

Canadian Artist of the Day

Moonlight

Tom Thomson 1915-16

Georgian Bay Road Trip Day 4

 Day 1 Toronto to Collingwood

Shelburne Coffee Break

Day 2 Meaford ON

Day 3 Collingwood ON

May 2022 - Owen Sound ON

We packed an overnight bag for the hour drive to Owen Sound.

The area around the upper Great Lakes has been home to the Ojibwe people since prehistory. In 1815, William Fitzwilliam Owen surveyed the area and named the inlet after his older brother Admiral Edward Owen. The name of the area in Ojibwe language is Gchi-wiigwedong.

Over the years, Owen Sound was a major port best known for its taverns and brothel. The community acquired names as the Chicago of the North, Corkscrew City, and Little Liverpool because of its rowdy reputation. Supporting this reputation was a tavern named "Bucket of Blood", located on the corner of an intersection known as "Damnation Corners", because of taverns on all four corners, but this location was also only a block away from an intersection with four churches called "Salvation Corners".

Mural Emily May Rose, who does a lot of work in Toronto. More of this on Monday.

Artists Alleyway off 2nd Avenue East between The Milk Maid and The Bleeding Carrot


The initiative began with The Bleeding Carrot owner, Tamara Sargent, about 10 years before paint hit the walls. In 2013 the painters released their creativity and new life was brought to the once dark alley. The murals walls are privately owned which made the process a bit easier.

 

Well, I had a field day in here!

Mural by Billy Goodkat.

xx

Fish by Ann Keeling

Tom Thomson (1877-1917) is considered one of the most important and influential Canadian artists. Together with members of the Group of Seven, he created a distinct approach to portraying rugged Canadian landscapes. Thomson, grew up and is buried in the Owen Sound area. The Tom Thomson Art Gallery is named for the iconic Canadian landscape artist and houses a nationally significant collection of his work. An exhibition of Thomson’s small oil sketches, graphics, memorabilia and archival materials offer unique insight into one of Canada’s most influential artists of the 20th century.

 

Click here to read his biography.

This is for Elizabeth and Bleubeard of Altered Book Lover.

Rae Johnson (1953-2020) was a Canadian painter who lived in Toronto, Canada.

Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Johnson studied at the New School of Art in Toronto from 1975 to 1976 and at the Ontario College of Art from 1977 to 1980. In 1981 she became a founding member of the ChromaZone gallery, an artist collective dedicated to reintroducing figurative painting to Toronto. In 1987 she moved to Flesherton in northern Ontario; the landscapes which she since produced are reminiscent of the work of the Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, whose work she had seen at the National Gallery of Canada when she was still a student.

Billy Bishop Museum  - we drove by but didn't go in. 

Born in Owen Sound, Air Marshal William Avery Bishop, VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED was a Canadian flying ace of the First World War. He was officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian and British Empire ace of the war, and also received a Victoria Cross. 
Ernst Udet called him "the greatest English scouting ace" and one Jasta had a bounty on his head. On 30 April, Bishop survived an encounter with Jasta 11 and Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. In May, Bishop received the Distinguished Service Order for shooting down two aircraft while being attacked by four others.

Click here to see this 45 minute video about Billy Bishop.

From here we drove 20 minutes to Cobble Beach in Kemble for the night.

Canadian Artist of the Day

Sunset Sky

Tom Thomson 1915

Canadian Artist of the Day

Spring Ice

Tom Thomson 1916

Featured Canadian Artist of the Day

 The Rapids

Tom Thomson

1917

McMichael Canadian Art Gallery

 November 2021 - Kleinburg ON

Last Sunday was such a gorgeous fall day with sunshine and temperatures around 17 C I bought tickets for the McMichael Canadian Art Gallery to see their outdoor exhibits. After paying $7 for parking we could have wandered for free. I had paid $15 (senior) each but we did end up visiting the indoor displays so another ✅ of places to visit as I doubt I would go back unless they had a special exhibition that interested me.

Beyond the galleries, you can explore 100 acres of forested land in the Humber River Valley – from a ridgetop ‘wilderness garden,’ planted by Robert and Signe McMichael to echo the northern forest beloved of the Group of Seven, to the heritage waterway important to indigenous peoples in this area.

GROUP OF SEVEN

Tom Thomson Shack

In 1914, Lawren Harris and Dr. James McCallum purchased land on Severn Street in the Rosedale ravine in Toronto on which they built a studio offering low‐rental space for Canadian painters. Now a National Historic Site of Canada, the Studio Building gave artists, including Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson, a place to live, work, and socialize.

Click here to see a sculpture of Tom Thomson's Canoe in downtown Toronto.

Behind the Studio Building stood a small shack, previously occupied by a cabinet maker and later used as a tool shed during the studio’s construction. By the fall of 1915, Thomson had moved into the shack apparently out of economic necessity, paying just one dollar a month in rent. The arrangement allowed the artist to live as he would in the north country – cooking his own meals, sleeping, painting, and hiking through the ravine – while at the same time keeping him in close contact with his fellow painters. The shack was to be Thomson’s home and studio until his untimely death in 1917.

The McMichael cemetery is the final resting place for six members of the Group of Seven, their spouses, and the gallery’s founders, Robert and Signe McMichael. In his book, One Man’s Obsession, Robert McMichael recalls receiving a letter from Jackson in 1967, in which the artist expressed a hope to be buried near Kleinburg. A few months later, while Jackson and Casson were visiting the McMichaels, the idea of a memorial cemetery for members of the Group of Seven began to take shape. In the spring of 1968, Jackson fell seriously ill and the need for a burial ground on the gallery premises became pressing. The McMichaels had to select an appropriate location for the cemetery that would be accessible, yet quiet and dignified. They soon settled on a small grassy knoll with views of the river valleys, the woods, the Tom Thomson Shack and the distant roofs of the gallery. Later, the McMichaels arranged to have the Department of Highways bring carefully selected slabs of granite, blasted during road building in the artists’ beloved north country, to the site. They were carved by Canadian sculptor E.B. Cox, and used as grave markers.

The missing seventh member of The Group not buried here is Tom Thomson who drowned in Canoe Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario.

The day after the body was discovered, it was interred in Mowat Cemetery near Canoe Lake. Under the direction of Thomson's older brother George, the body was exhumed two days later and was shipped to Owen Sound. It was re-interred in the family plot beside the Leith Presbyterian Church on 21 July in what is now the Municipality of Meaford.

Since we later saw The Group of Seven exhibit inside the McMichael I chose to include one of each artist's pieces below as well. The link above has several videos of the works.

There was a separate exhibit of Tom Thomson that we missed.

The chronological development of the cemetery is as follows:

Arthur Lismer (1885‐1969): Lismer died in Montreal, Quebec on March 23, 1969 and was brought to Kleinburg for burial on April 25, 1969. His wife Esther (1879‐1976) was buried with him.

Frederick Horsman Varley (1881‐1969): Varley died on September 8, 1969, was cremated on September 13 and interred the following week.

Girl in Gold 

Click here to see another Varley piece.

Lawren Stewart Harris (1885‐1970): Harris died in Vancouver, British Columbia on January 29, 1970 and was cremated. His ashes, along with those of his wife, Bess (1889‐1969), were interred at the McMichael on March 20, 1970.

Click here to see some of Harris' work at the AGO in Toronto.

Alexander Young Jackson (1882‐1974): Jackson died on April 5, 1974 and was buried in a graveside service on April 8, 1974.

Frank Johnston (1888‐1949): Johnston died July 9, 1949 and was originally buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. He was disinterred and reinterred at the McMichael on March 13, 1975. His wife, Florence, is buried with him.

Alfred Joseph Casson (1898‐1992): Casson died on February 19, 1992 in Toronto and was buried on February 20, 1992. His wife, Margaret (1900‐1992) is buried with him.

Robert McMichael (1921‐2003): Robert McMichael died on November 18, 2003 and was buried on November 24 following visitation and a funeral service at the gallery.
Signe McMichael (1921‐2007): Signe McMichael died on July 4, 2007. The gallery was closed for visitation and a funeral held on July 9, 2007.

Other members of The Group 

J E H MacDonald

Edwin Holgate

Franklin Carmichael

The Sculpture Garden meanders across the property at the front of the McMichael. The nine bronze sculptures, donated by artist Ivan Eyre, are part of our permanent collection and can be enjoyed year-round. Eyre is best known for his large landscapes and mythological paintings, and his sculpture is similarly a complex synthesis of Western and non-Western influences.