Tom Thomson, icon

Went to see some of his paintings at the AGO (Art Gallery of Toronto) this afternoon. They have a dedicated room with some 50 paintings (mostly small canvases – 8” X 10”). I remember seeing also quite a few at the McMichael Gallery, just north of Toronto. The enigmatic Tom Thomson , enigmatic for his unexplained and untimely death on a lake in the Algonquin Park – we went to see his “memorial”, off Canoe Lake last year, a short canoe trip from Arowhon Pines.

He is the one that inspired members of the famous Group of Seven, that was formally created (these guys had been painting together for years already!) a few years after his death in 1917. Funny enough, many of the Group were older than Thomson (J.E.H Macdonald was a few years older and took Thomson “under his wing” so to speak). My interest today in Thomson comes from having seen a documentary on him earlier this week – “West Wind (after the title of one of his now famous landscape painting - above), the vision of Tom Thomson”. Fabulous! Shot in 2011 – mostly in Algonquin Park. What a film – very rich in color, “à la hauteur” of Thomson’s own coloris. Would have seen it again this afternoon (at TIFF Bell Lighthouse), if it had not been “sold out”... Below - "The Jack Pine", another iconic painting of Thomson...