Tom Thomson's West Wind and the Weather

 

There are still many unknown facts about this iconic Tom Thomson weather observation renowned as the "West Wind". Stories about this painting abound from people who should know the facts and who knew Tom Thomson personally.

Sketch for "The West Wind" Spring 1916
Oil on composite wood-pulp board 8 7/16 x 10 9/16 in
Tom's Standard Paint Box Size
Now in the Art Gallery of Ontario. 

Tom's patron Dr. James MacCallum says he knew the definitive story about when and where the "West Wind" was created. He was there with Tom, Lawren Harris, and Lawren’s cousin Chester on Lake Cauchon when he painted the sketch. “It was blowing very hard and Lawren Harris was painting further up the shore. The wind blew down the tree of the picture, and Harris first thought that Thomson was killed but he soon sprang up, waved his hand to him, and went on painting.” Dr. MacCallum's note to Miss A. L. Beatty, secretary to the curator of the Art Gallery of Ontario, dated May 14, 1937. 

Lawren Harris also described the cold frontal passage in a 1948 lecture although he did not refer to the "West Wind" by name.

"...one afternoon in early spring on the shore of one of the Cauchon Lakes in Algonquin Park ... a dramatic thunderstorm came up. There was a wild rush of wind across the lake and all nature was tossed into turmoil. Tom and I were in an abandoned shack. When the storm broke Tom looked out, grabbed his sketch box, ran out into the gale, squatted behind a big stump, and commenced to paint in a fury." 

How much proof does one need to conclude that Tom Thomson was a weatherman? Violent spring thunderstorms are typically frontal and often supercellular in nature and Tom painted what followed. 

Winnifred Trainer, Tom's close friend was in correspondence with William T. Little who was writing about Thomson's art and life in the 1950s and 1960s. Judge Little published "The Tom Thomson Mystery", a summary of his research regarding Thomson’s death in 1970. Winnie assured him that Tom had personally told her that the sketch was completed at Cedar Lake in the north of the Park.

Ranger Mark Robinson also tells the story that the original sketch had been completed at Achray on Grand Lake and claimed that Thomson had tried to give it to him. Mark apparently refused and advised  Tom to put it on a much larger canvas during the following winter.  

Tom did indeed start a studio version of the sketch in that winter of 1916-1917. That iconic painting was still on his easel in the Toronto Studio Shack when his friends went to clean it out after Tom died in Jul 1917. Tom had told his fiancée Winnie Trainor that he was "much grieved" by the studio painting and unsure what to do with it to finish it besides destroying it altogether. The West Wind was never completed and Tom was not happy with that work. 

I do not wish to add to the speculation about where and when the sketch was completed. I desire to simply explain the science within this plein-air sketch of which Tom was obviously and rightfully very proud. Tom even took the time to sign the plein-air work which is something that he rarely did.  For a complete and scholarly investigation of the "West Wind" mystery, please visit the work of  Diana at Bob McElroy at "The West Wind".

I have been nose to nose with the "West Wind" sketch and large studio painting many times. Sometimes the best brushwork is the rough and unfinished stroke of uncertainty. Sometimes artists worry and think too much - just my opinion of course.

The Weather Network Interview circa 2004
Tom Thomson, The West Wind Exhibition

Tom’s motivation to “record” this particular observation – the tree, colours of the hills, and the cloud structure. The wind is everywhere in this sketch (included again below) – the water waves, the white caps, the streets of turbulent stratocumulus, the shape of individual cloud elements, the flagged Jack pines ... the wind is in everything. 

It is unclear who titled this sketch but my guess would be Dr. James MacCallum, Tom's patron who had acquired the sketch by 1921. If my intuition is correct, the good Doctor nailed the sketch with the perfect and most appropriate name. 

Another brighter version of the "West Wind" Sketch

Tom Thomson's weather observation tells the story of a cold frontal passage marked by thunderstorms that had cleared and were then to their east. Strong and blustery westerly winds typically follow a cold front and nature responds characteristically.  

Cross-section of a typical Cold front Looking North
as contrasted with Tom's southerly view.

• The air behind a cold front is colder and drier than the air ahead of it.
• Surface friction slows the advancing cold air causing a steep slope to the front.
• The steep slope pushes the air ahead of it rapidly upwards producing vertically developed cumulus clouds.
• Cold fronts can bring the most violent weather including linear squall lines. 

Cloud Streets of turbulent stratocumulus aligned with the wind
are exceptionally common in the cold flow behind a cold front.

Streets of Backlit Turbulent Stratocumulus looking southerly
on a day similar to when the West Wind was painted.

The streets of turbulent stratocumulus clouds align with those winds in the unstable, planetary boundary layer (PBL) in which the earth and atmosphere freely exchange heat, moisture, and momentum. The cloud streets are spaced apart by a distance roughly equal to three times the depth of the PBL. Helical vortices align with the wind in a process very similar if not identical to oceanic Langmuir Streaks. The stratocumulus clouds are found where the helical circulations come together in an updraft. Relatively clear skies separate the cloud streets where the helical circulations interact as downdrafts. The same meteorological processes explain snowsquall bands in the winter. 

The Spacing of Cloud Streets is about Three Times the
Height of the Inversion at the top of the
Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) 

Oceanic Langmuir Streaks are comparable to the Cloud Streaks 
that are found in the Atmospheric "Ocean" of air. 

 

Stratocumulus Streets as viewed by satellite over the
Great Lakes behind a cold front (left) with a simultaneous  
image of those same clouds (right) over the
Oak Ridge Moraine near Schomberg

Pictures can be worth many words. Tom Thomson was painting the reality of weather behind a cold front. Hopefully, the preceding science told in many words and pictures proves that. 

The turbulent clouds are clearly darker in the middle and brighter on their edges. Even though the sun is not within the panel, Tom was clearly looking southward and the clouds were backlit. Note as well that the distant shore was in shadow and relatively devoid of colour. It is unusual for plein-air artists to paint looking into the light but Tom didn't have any other option given the orientation of the lake shore.  

Another View of the iconic West Wind Sketch

The lake was full of white caps. The Beaufort scale describing these conditions as Tom painted was at least Number 7 - Near Gales (28–33 knots 32–38 mph 50–61 km/h): "Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along the direction of the wind. Whole trees are in motion. Inconvenience felt in walking against the wind."  This was consistent with the description of the wind given by Lawren Harris as "gale". 

The gravity waves of the lake surface are aligned perpendicular to those westerly winds. 

PowerPoint slide from "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman"

Those pines had experienced such winds many times before. Rather than break, the trees bend with the prevailing winds. This process is referred to as "flagging" where branches and foliage grow downwind with the prevailing wind directions. Branches attempting to grow upwind are stunted in comparison. Tom's pine trees were heavily "flagged". The prevailing wind direction in Algonquin and Georgian Bay was and is southwest to westerly. I know of millions of trees that would agree. 

The vitality of the plein-air sketch is often unmatched by the more careful and studied studio painting. Tom certainly felt that and apparently, it "grieved" him. The studio version of the "West Wind" (below) was left undone by his death.

Tom Thomson, The West Wind, winter, 1916–1917,
oil on canvas, 120.7 x 137.9 cm,
 Gift of the Canadian Club of Toronto, 1926
 Art Gallery of Ontario, As restored in 2017

Tom Thomson's sketch for the "West Wind" is a fine example of a gifted artist keeping his oils clean under challenging circumstances. One way a plein-air artist attempts to keep their colours pristine is to avoid mixing them in the first place. Generous amounts of the correct colour are loaded from the palette on a brush and swirled into the correct place within the composition. Load it, drop it and leave it alone. This also requires respecting the boundaries between different colours which allows some of the panel to peek through. The colour of the aged panel or the tinted ground can create a complementary sparkle between the contrasting colours in the sketch. The energy of the oils and the brushwork can make the scene remain vibrant and alive. Tom Thomson achieved that miracle giving life to the oils with a vision direct from nature. 

Tom Thomson Sketch box Palette

Tom left his sketch box palette in a bit of a mess. One does not keep your colours very clean on a disorganized palette. He just didn't have the chance to scrape it clean and start fresh. Tom Thomson had something to say with his brush and we are fortunate to be able to watch and listen.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: "Tom Thomson's Ragged Pine 1916" may have been the plein air painting that Tom did during the thunderstorm described by Lawren Harris and Dr. MacCallum in the stories included above. 

PSS: For the Blog Version of my Tom Thomson catalogue raisonné, Google Search Naturally Curious "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now" or follow this link “http://philtheforecaster.blogspot.com/2022/10/tom-thomson-was-weatherman-summary-as.html”