I recently stumbled across a remarkable artist named Tom Thomson (August 5, 1877 – July 8, 1917). He was a Canadian artist whose work influenced a group of landscape painters known as the Group of Seven. Thomson passed away before the Group was officially formed, however he is sometimes incorrectly included in the Group.
Thomson started drawing and painting at an early age, but only started taking painting seriously once he was in his 30s. He was largely self-taught but developed skills through his work as a graphic designer.
His style is similar to that of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne, with expressive brushwork and use of color.
As he was largely self-taught, he seemed to paint without the limitations of conventional wisdom. One of the benefits of being a self-taught artist is that you can learn techniques and methods and apply them in your own way. When you are taught under a system, you will inevitably adopt the practices of your teachers to some extent.
It is the way Thomson used color which fascinates me the most. All his paintings have a wonderful harmony and demonstrate very interesting color combinations. He also seemed to enjoy painting challenging subjects such as the Northern Lights or cluttered treescapes.
My favorite painting is Maple Saplings, which demonstrates a stunning contrast between muted background colors and vibrant yellows and oranges in the foreground.
Anyway, I will let you enjoy the rest of his paintings. Unfortunately, I was only able to locate photos of a handful of his paintings.
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Thanks for Reading!
I appreciate you taking the time to read this post and I hope you found it helpful. Feel free to share it with friends.
Happy painting!
Dan Scott
Draw Paint Academy
Wow!
Agree 🙂
Dan
A bit japanees influence or? I like the stilistic simplefying.Viveca
Yes his paintings do have a bit of a Japanese feel to them. Though I am not sure if there is any formal Japanese influence.
Regards
Dan
Just for the record Tom Thompson is famous here in Canada and is one of the most revered artists of his time and today. Many artists try to copy his style and when they do folks will automatically say, “it looks like a Thompson work!” So he is very well-known along with his association with the group of seven.
Hi Terry
Thanks for sharing. I am amazed I had not heard of him previously! Looks like I need to go back and do some more research.
Regards
Dan
Is this Tom Thompson the same Tom from “The Group of seven”?
Hi Cheryl
Yes it is. It seems he is much more well known than I originally thought!
Dan
He is a very very well known painter here in Canada!
Hi Cindy
Yes based on the number of emails I received this morning, it appears I severely understated the importance of Mr Thomson! Though I am glad to hear he is so well known, as I love his paintings.
Dan
Thanks for finding this artist and providing background. You can see how some of today’s painters have this style. That says something! I’ve followed an artist, Jose Truillo for several years and his style has shifted in this direction. His philosophy, based on one of his YouTube posts, is to go with the flow, go with what people seem to want, or where you have success.
Hi Kimberly, thanks for sharing! Yes, I have watched a few of Jose’s videos.
Regards
Dan
enjoyed seeing his work, beautiful.
Just saw this, wonderful!!!
I was watching an episode of “The Murdoch Mysteries” and this artist Tom Thomson was mentioned. I had to look him up and Oh My Goodness, what such beautiful works but so very sorry to hear he had passed away so early in his life. How sad and what a loss. Thanks for showing me his work, marvellous.
Tom Thompson is one of my very favourite Canadian painters and yes he is very famous here in Canada, although many classically trained & realism artists do not like his or the Group of Seven artists (which is was apart of before it was a formal group. Some say that the group came together after his death as a way of honouring him, and dealing with the grief of losing their dear friend.
Which reminds me of how the impressionist were thought of by the artists of the day.
Thank you for your studies of artists and their styles. I took realism for 2 years hoping it would help me with my abstracts, from the two my style is beginning to develop into something between the two.
Check out the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, a gallery just north of Toronto which features the Group of Seven, Tom Thomson, and other Canadian artists. There is also the Tom Thomson Gallery in Owen Sound, where Thomson was born. Ian Dejardin is the Executive Director of the McMichael collection and did an online talk on 10 Feb about Thomson and his work. Very informative.
Tom Thomson is an icon amount Canadian landscape painters. I like his northern river the most which is reputed to be the Oxtongue River flowing out of Algonquin Park. There is some controversy over his death which make him all the more mysterious. As a landscape painter I have painted a number of his works to get inside of him and feel his style as do I am sure many other Canadian artists.
I’ve only just seen this post today. I’m so glad that the world is slowly getting to know our Canadian treasures like Tom Thomson. I highly recommend checking out the group of seven painters, their diversity in styles shows how much they appreciated the talents of their fellow artist and encouraged each other to try new things. They’re amazing to me. Also, I feel I must mention another painter from the same era that was so ahead of her time. Partly for simply being a woman. And that is Emily Carr, another celebrated artist in Canada, and especially here in BC, her home province. 💚🤎🧡