The Red Toque

Thomsons Paint Box

When out painting on location, Thomson would use a small wooden sketch box, not much bigger then a piece of letter-sized paper, to carry his oil paints, palette, and brushes; his small painting boards were safely tucked away from each other in slots fitted in the top. Sitting down in the canoe, on a log or rock, with the sketch box in front of him, he would quickly capture the landscape around him.  From 1914 to 1917 Thomson spent the spring and fall sketching, and acted as a guide and fire Ranger during the summer in Algonquin Park.  He became an expert canoeist and woodsman.  He spent the winter in “Thomson’s Shack”, a construction shed outside the Studio Building in Toronto.  It was here where he painted his now famous canvases, The Jack Pine, The West Wind, and Northern River, among others.

Thomson found beauty in the most uncommon scenes – Jackson wrote: “To most people Thomson’s country was a monotonous dreary waste, yet out of one little stretch he found riches undreamed of.  Not knowing all the conventional definitions of beauty, he found it all beautiful:  muskeg, burnt and drowned land, log chutes, beaver dams, creeks, wild rivers and placid lakes, wild flowers, northern lights, the flight of wild geese and the changing seasons from spring to summer to autumn  

Tom Thomson died sometime between July 8, when he was last seen, and July 16, 1917, when his body was found floating in Canoe Lake.  The cause of death was recorded as accidental drowning.   And though his death was officially recorded as accidental due to drowning, his demise has become one of Canada’s greatest mysteries.

After Tom’s death,Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris A.Y Jackson ,Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, F.H.Varley would go on to form Canada’s first national school of painting, the Group of Seven.

TO THE MEMORY OF TOM THOMSON ARTIST, WOODSMAN AND GUIDE WHO WAS DROWNED IN CANOE LAKE JULY 8TH, 1917
 HE LIVED HUMBLY BUT PASSIONATELY WITH THE WILD 
IT MADE HIM BROTHER TO ALL UNTAMED THINGS OF NATURE 
IT DREW HIM APART AND REVEALED ITSELF WONDERFULLY TO HIM
IT SENT HIM OUT FROM THE WOODS ONLY TO SHOW THESE REVELATIONS THROUGH HIS ART AND IT TOOK HIM TO ITSELF AT LAST.

I have created a number of these horizontal boxes. 

Much like my earlier wall mounted vertical story boxes, they are based on historical events and people. Theses boxes are constructed from an old weathered cedar fence. Hand cut dovetails exaggerates the historical aspect of the work. The box is filled with bits of debris collected from the beaches of Gabriola Island that are coated with a mixture of autumn coloured encaustic mimicking a Tom Thomson sketch. The panel inlaid into the lid as the back drop is changeable.