Tom Thomson Boxed Notecards

Although Tom Thomson’s remarkable paintings have become icons of Canadian art, his career as a painter spanned only six years. He grew up on a farm near Owen Sound, Ontario. After briefly attending business college, he found work as a commercial artist. At Grip Limited in Toronto, he met several artists who later formed the Group of Seven. He had no formal training as a painter, but he learned from his fellow artists at Grip. With them he made his first canoeing and sketching trips in the northern Ontario wilderness. In May 1912 he traveled to Algonquin Park for the first time with another artist. Over the next five years, he returned to the park, arriving at Mowat in early spring, camping for the summer, and leaving in late autumn for Toronto. During the winter months he worked his oil sketches into finished canvases. Enthralled by the northern country, Thomson felt compelled to express the emotions that the north inspired in him. His painting style is characterized by flat areas of intense color, generously applied with a wide brush, with various elements composed for decorative effect. He died at Canoe Lake on July 8, 1917, where he drowned under mysterious circumstances.