Cool Light, Warm Shadows Landscape Painting

Here's a recent pen and ink sketch that I enjoyed putting together- scanned, and then coloured in photoshop. This made me think of an art history/ studio project that would be fun to try out in class.

Project: cool light, warm shadows landscape painting

Part One: students analyze oil sketches and paintings of winter landscapes by Tom Thomson and Lawren Harris with attention to the colour they used for light and shadows.

Part Two: students complete a Creative Process booklet to develop their own sketch and painting about light and shadows.

Part Three: final painting and group critique.

Here are a few of Tom Thomson's:

- Patrick

Tom Thomson on Twitter?

From contemporary Canadian art news to classic Canadian art news, as discussed in this Globe article, an anonymous tweeter has taken on Tom Thomson as he would have tweeted during the last weeks of his life leading up to his tragic death on July 8th 1917.

The tweets feature photos, artwork and info that is historically accurate and is leading up to supporting a theory of how Tom was killed. What a great way to use twitter to make a historical mystery come alive again. As a huge Tom Thomson dork, I am looking forward to following these updates, and you can to:
http://twitter.com/#!/TTLastSpring.

The Two Most Famous Paintings In Canadian Art...

I wondered what was going on when I was in the A.G.O. last week and noticed that Tom Thomson's "West Wind" was missing. Arguably the two most famous paintings in Canadian art are hanging side by side in a gallery in London, England this week: Thomson's "West Wind" and "Jack Pine".

Both images are considered icons of the Canadian spirit and it must be wonderful to see them together. They are part of a larger exhibit of Thomson and the Group of Seven that is touring Europe for the first time since the first quarter of last century. The Globe covers the details in this article.

Two Stories of Algonquin Park

    I came across two inspiring articles this morning. Although both are about completely different people separated by almost a century, they share one common centre point: Algonquin Park.

    The first article is about a new film about the life (and not the death) of Canadian painter Tom Thomson that is opening this weekend at the Vancouver film festival.

    The second article, that features a beautiful short video, is about a Canadian Olympic Kayaker who trains in Algonquin Park, on the lakes that Tom Thomson painted. These articles make me want to get back up to the park to catch the autumn, and do some painting and kayaking.