Tom Thomson's Studio "Morning Cloud"

 

The story behind Tom Thomson’s Sketch The Morning Cloud 1913, was described in the previous (linked) Blog. I wish to return to that cloud to try another approach to explain the meteorology included in those oils. I think of this as a Mid-Term Refresher Blog that examines the most vital material. I initially considered just moving on but no one needs to be left behind...  the weather is just too important, especially now...

Morning Cloud
 Alternate title: Dawn, Smoke Lake and Morning Cloud
Winter 1913–14 Oil on canvas
28 3/8 x 40 1/16 in. (72 x 101.8 cm)

The Studio Building, 25 Severn Street
 Studio 1 on the ground floor in 
more ways than one...

Tom would paint a larger version of the sketch in the winter of 1913-1914. The Studio Building was completed in March 1914 but many of the artists moved in before that date - Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J. (William) Beatty, Arthur Heming, Albert Curtis Williamson, and J.E.H. MacDonald. Tom Thomson was not on that list of original Studio Building Artists but was sharing Studio 1 with A.Y. Jackson starting in January 1914. Dr. MacCallum was sponsoring Jackson and Thomson for a year (1914) and paying for their expenses if only they would devote their time to painting. That sounds like a great arrangement to me!

The "Morning Cloud" would have been one of the first paintings completed in Studio 1 surrounded by all of his artist friends and the finished result reveals that influence. The studio painting "Morning Cloud" may also be found in the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is worth the trip to pay a visit to these brush strokes. 

I employ the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model (CBCM) of weather systems throughout  "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" in order to place Tom’s location in relation to his subject matter. Sleuthing the location and direction of view is typically feasible through deciphering the cloud types and their stability. I have written about this subject extensively in "The Art And Science of Phil the Forecaster". That blog is searchable with many more in-depth descriptions.

The Cogs in the Weather Machine Turn with the Wind.
Red "X" Cogs turn Cyclonically with the thumb
of your Coriolis Hand pointing Up. 
Blue "N" Cogs turn Anticyclonically with the thumb
of your Coriolis Hand pointing Down. 
Together the Cogs Turn the Weather Machine and
Redistribute Energy to keep the Earth in Balance

In light of the importance of the CBCM, I wish to approach the science again using the Coriolis Hand - a more physical approach. Repetition of the science from a different angle using new vocabulary often switches on the bulb. New light might shine on the weather and why Thomson painted what he did. I own any deficiencies in this attempt to reveal the wonders of the weather to you. If you find this material challenging, it is the result of my inadequacies… but I keep trying and I hope that you do as well. 

A mid-latitude weather system is comprised of three conveyor belt flows. The Warm Conveyor Belt (WCB) brings heat and moisture energy into the system from the tropics. The Cold Conveyor Belt (CCB) supplies the contrasting cold and dry air from polar regions. The Dry Conveyor Belt (DCB) is essentially the jet stream that separates the warm from the cold but also supplies the wind energy that results from those contrasting temperatures to spin up the storm. The flows typically glide along the constant energy surfaces in the atmosphere that slope upward from low levels in the tropics to higher levels over the poles.

Each conveyor belt is composed of two complementary flows. Always point the fingers of your Coriolis hand in the direction of the flow.

My Companion Arms: Cyclonic with Thumb Up -
Anticyclonic with Thumb Down

On the cold side of the combined flow, typically toward the poles, your fingers will curl cyclonically and your thumb points upward in the direction of the rising air mass. Rising air is more prone to instability and convective clouds. This is the Cyclonic Companion and is found in each of the three conveyor belts.

On the warm side of the combined flow comprising a conveyor belt (typically toward the equator), your fingers must curl anticyclonically and your thumb must biologically point downward in the direction of the descending air mass. Descending air is likely to be stable and associated with gravity wave clouds. The Anticyclonic Companion is described by your Coriolis Hand with the thumb pointing down.

Deformation Zones can be Analysed from
Either side - The result is the same.

Deformation Zones (DZ's) as observed by Thomson in the "Morning Cloud" are the most important dynamic feature in the atmosphere and are a big part of the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model (CBCM). In fact, every line in the atmosphere is a deformation zone within the atmospheric frame of reference. Recall that each line is in fact just an indicator of the vertical, three-dimensional skin that separates the volume of warm and moist air from that of the cold and dry. The quasi-horizontal line is simply the intersection of that 3-D skin with a layer of moisture. We require water vapour as tracers to reveal atmospheric circulations. Dry air forms a three-dimensional boundary as well. Every conveyor belt is led by a deformation zone. The col of the deformation zone marks where the cyclonic companion diverges from the anticyclonic companion.

Deformation zones can be found at all time and space scales in the atmosphere. They can be observed whenever air moves within the atmospheric frame of reference. I have used deformation zones to explain climate by using the seasonal gyres in the atmosphere. Deformation zones can also be found within air masses where the circulations create boundaries between flows with slightly different characteristics. Weather fronts are also deformation zones. Deformation zones are also evident in convective clouds and in the stroke of my paddle in the lake. Every line resulting from a moving fluid is a deformation zone and we see lines everywhere.

For a more in-depth explanation of these concepts
please refer to A Jet Streak with a Paddle

The DZs are sharpest and parallel to the flow in regions just upstream from where that flow increases in speed. DZs are perpendicular to the flow downstream whenever that flow decreases in speed.

The science really is this simple. The complications arise because these conveyor belt circulations move in three dimensions and change with time. These weather systems are essentially engines fuelled by heat and moisture. Weather is a vital necessity required to redistribute these quantities globally in an attempt to keep the Earth in balance.

The Warm Conveyor Belt is the star of the Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model. Perhaps one more graphic will shine the light more brightly and send the message home. 

I try to use graphics from my days at COMET and those constructed recently in my attempt to further illustrate the above. Pictures can be worth thousands of words. If anyone, sees the light based on this discussion, the effort was well spent and thank you. I really appreciate those staying with me and taking the time to understand the fascinating atmospheric ocean. We may live at the bottom of that ocean but that is a great vantage point from which to observe and appreciate the weather.

Tom Thomson was enthralled with the atmospheric ocean as well. You can feel it in his art. Any serious Tom Thomson catalogue raisonné must include an examination of the weather displayed in his art. Otherwise, we are certainly missing his true motivation. Happily, there is considerable overlap between my meteorological career and Tom’s portfolio. I felt that it would be irresponsible not to try to contribute to understanding the genius of the man and putting his work into the context that it deserves.

"Morning Cloud" Analysed

The next Blog will get back to a weather painting. None of this material will be on any exam although it should be. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson's Morning, 1915

 

I suspect that Tom Thomson was a morning person. His art reveals him as a "Let's get up and make something of the day" kind of guy. Why get up so early with the sun? This painting simply called "Morning" perhaps by default, reveals those answers.

Morning - Summer 1915
Oil on composite wood-pulp board or book binders' board
8 1/2 x 10 5/8 in, Tom's Paint Box Size

Someone wrote “Morning” on the back of this sketch in ink and it might have even been Tom himself. I strongly suspect that Tom was just noting when he painted that sketch and did not intend a name for this little masterpiece. That single word used as a title is laconic in the extreme, especially when applied to a work of such stunning beauty and science. In any event, Tom was a man of few words and this two-syllable label stuck. His painting gives you all the reasons that you need to be a morning person. 

the storm of the previous day was safely exiting to the east;

the sun had not yet cleared the eastern horizon;

the air was fresh, dry and cool;

the northwesterly winds were keeping the biting bugs at bay;

the clouds were making all kinds of interesting shapes in the sky;

the spring air was full of life and sounds;

there was probably coffee or tea brewing on the campfire;

might as well paint as the fishing would be poor behind the cold front; 

what else could you ask for but be alive at such a sunrise? 

Bless Tom for helping out with the timing of this painting. This simple fact makes the application of Creative Scene Investigation (CSI) that much simpler and more certain. CSI is what allowed me to deduce all of the above and more since I was not there standing at Tom’s shoulder. Of course, I am guessing about the coffee but that is OK to inject humour sometimes.

PowerPoint Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman.
Imagine the symbols and features sliding into the screen as
each piece of evidence is revealed and discussed. The symbols
vanish when I move on to the next feature to discuss. 
My PowerPoint presentation was huge...

Please let me explain the CSI steps...

Tom was looking easterly before the sun was able to climb above the horizon. The sun was certainly behind the purple hills in the distance as the horizon is brightest there. The crepuscular rays also confirm this. The crepuscular rays do not diverge very much so Tom is looking upward at the “train track shadows” in the morning sky. If the sun was behind the clouds, the crepuscular rays would diverge much more as if you were at the same level as the train track and looking directly toward the oncoming train.  The parallel nature of the crepuscular rays confirms that the sun must still be below the horizon. 

Crepuscular rays or “

God rays” are shafts of sunlight that appear to radiate from the point in the sky where the sun is located. These rays which stream through gaps in clouds or other objects are shafts of sunlit air separated by darker-shadowed regions. The apparent divergence of these streams of sunlit air is a perspective effect like that experienced with train tracks. The name comes from the Latin word "crepusculum" which means twilight since these shafts of light are best viewed when the sun is low over the horizon – at sunrise or sunset.  

The accompanying time series of actual crepuscular rays looking east
from Watershed Farm at the crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine confirms
Thomson's view with the sun at or just below the horizon - left image

"Morning" spring 1915 Tom Thomson

The dominant cloud type was stratocumulus aligned parallel to the winds in the planetary boundary layer. That wind was blowing from left to right through the cloud depth as confirmed by the arching upwind side of the cloud. The dashed purple line in the accompanying graphic follows the arched shape of the cloud. As a result, the wind must be northerly in this view that looks toward the rising sun. 

Daytime heating cannot explain the stratocumulus so it must be purely the result of the turbulent mixing of the strong, overnight, northerly surface winds. Strong and gusty winds mix the moisture from the ground upward and in this case, high enough to reach the lifted condensation level for the air mass. This fact is confirmed by the strong wave action which is unusual for dawn before the sun has cleared the horizon.

The only way one can keep the night-time radiational inversion from establishing itself is to have strong cold air advection in the wake of a cold front and a low-pressure area. Generally, northerly winds bring cold air and southerly winds usher in the warmth. There are of course unusual exceptions to every rule but this is still a great place to start. 

The previous day was warmer, stormy and probably dominated by rain as is typical with a springtime low-pressure area. The rainfall from the previous day must have been significant to provide the moisture that was mixed upward through turbulence to form those stratocumulus clouds. The layered cirrus and altostratus clouds on the eastern horizon were within the deformation zone that wrapped around the retreating low-pressure area. The typical deformation zone that embraces the trailing edge of a low-pressure area was also discussed in "Tom Thomson’s Sketch The Morning Cloud 1913". The wind and the sky puzzle pieces fit together very well.

Note how the sky colours are not the deep orange or red of a setting sun. This is an independent piece of evidence that confirms a morning painting as opposed to an evening plein air sketch - even if Tom had not told us already. The morning atmosphere tends to have less dust and other pollutants than the evening atmosphere. Contaminants from the earth’s surface are mixed upward into the planetary boundary layer after a day of wind and perhaps also by daytime, convective thermals. Atmospheric dust scatters the shorter wavelengths out of the direct beam from the sun leaving light that is rich in longer wavelength oranges and reds.

"Morning" backlit forest showing paint loaded, brush strokes

Finally, this is certainly a spring painting as opposed to "summer" as listed in the official catalogue. There was no colour on the distant shore except for the dark green of the coniferous forest. There were no green leaves on the deciduous trees. The backlit shore was devoid of colour and clearly not the subject of Tom's interest. 

It was going to be a beautiful day – a great day to paint after a day or two of being confined within a wet tent.

The following image of "Morning" reveals the rich, impasto texture of Tom's 1915 and later works. 

Detailed Three-Dimensional Scan of "Morning"
and the surface is even more textured than
the photograph can possibly reveal. 

Back of "Morning"  - Labelled to right.

Inscription recto: l.r., estate stamp in ink; in ink by artist?, Morning / Tom Thomson; 

in ink, T-T-39; in graphite, No. 21 Mrs. Harkness; AYJ; 

SB; in graphite, Not for Sale; in black paint?, sketch #15 

Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound (967-040)

My observation is that AYJ is certainly for Alexander Young Jackson  but

"SB" is the boldest font on the back and it is unexplained? 

A.Y. Jackson would have confirmed this as Thomson's work. 

Might SB denote the Studio Building? 

My Thomson friend captures the genius of Tom Thomson in a single paragraph: 

"Thinking about the speed at which some of the phenomena Thomson depicted in this and other sketches would progress, I am always impressed by how well he captured them. He had such an amazing perception of colour, along with the ability to put it down on his panels rapidly and yet not with the appearance of rushing. His memory of what he was seeing was also amazing, allowing him to capture it as it changed in front of him."

The Shack circa 1915 - Tom's Home and Studio

The plein air painting "Morning" from the spring of 1915 characterizes where Tom was headed artistically. Tom had moved out of the Studio Building early in 1915 and he would use the Shack as his studio thereafter, whenever he was in Toronto. The first year of World War One occupied everyone's activities. Tom's artist friends had dispersed with their jobs, the war or families. Tom was left to journey on his own artistic adventure and it showed. As I mentioned before, one cannot go anywhere new by following someone else. 

Upon his passing, "Morning" appropriately went Tom's eldest sister Elizabeth who was married to Tom J. Harkness, the executor of the estate. It was later purchased by D.I. McLeod in 1935 who gifted it to the Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound in 1967. There is an interesting story behind every painting if we only take the time to look. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson’s Sketch The Morning Cloud 1913

Tom’s motivation to “record” this particular observation – the striking cloud structure and sunrise light.

The low horizon identifies another of Tom’s skyscapes. I painted my interpretation on a piece of basswood plank measuring only 4 by 5 inches. Tom's sketch was on a piece of 7 by 10 inch canvas - smaller than his regular paint box size of 8.5 by 10.5 inches. That is unusual and there is probably a story behind this smaller size - I just do not know what that tale is.  

Tom Thomson's sketch for "Morning Cloud" Fall 1913
Oil on canvas 7 x 9 15/16 in. (17.8 x 25.3 cm)
Smaller than Tom's Paint Box Size
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (70/368)

Sketch - The Morning Cloud, 1913 

Creative Scene Investigation A Step at a Time

What we know... 

• I am really glad “morning” appears in the title leaving little doubt as to the timing of this plein air painting. 
• The clouds are definitely “backlit” with the edges being much brighter than the interior. For an explanation of front-lit and backlit see "Where is the sun?". 
• The sky has a distinct orange hue timing this sketch as early in the morning through the application of Rayleigh scattering principles. Tom painted looking toward the sun but that was not a concern since the sun was still lower than the cloud edge. Tom would be finished the sketch before the sun cleared the top of the cloud. 
• The distant hills were backlit and in shadow thus lacking in colour.
• There was a “white line” on the distant shore indicating that Tom was looking toward the dominant light source - sun glint. I described the optics of the white line in "1207 Blue Line" but may dedicate another blog and more graphics in the future. 
• The knife edge of the cloud is fundamental to locating Tom in relation to the storm. The cloud was altostratus. Altostratus is located in a moist and stable atmosphere. The altostratus indicates rising air in the atmosphere and this must be associated with a retreating low-pressure area. The sharp edge observed by Tom separates the moist air of the warm conveyor belt from dry. This sharp edge occurs in two possible areas of the conveyor belt conceptual model and these options will be explained below. 
• Tom was looking southeasterly at that autumn sunrise. 
• The wave action was from the observer's right shoulder making it a west-to-northwesterly surface wind. This would be consistent with cold air advection in the wake of a large low-pressure area. 
• Examination of the wave action suggests that the waves grow larger with distance. This is the opposite effect that one would expect as objects get smaller with distance. Larger waves in the distance are quite consistent if one is painting from a forested shore. I was using a high-resolution scan of the painting to reach this conclusion. I might be reaching here and reading something into the brush strokes but it is okay to suggest the principle. 

It certainly rained at Tom’s campsite the night before. Given the sharpness of the deformation zone, it probably rained quite hard. The sharpness and size of meteorological features are directly related to their intensity and also the weather.

The forecast for “today” was going to be sunny but cooler. The temperature would be slow to rise during the day as the heating from the sun would be negated somewhat by the cold air advection. The northwesterly breezes would help to keep the last of the deer flies and biting insects down.  They would also dry out his tent and clothes. Turbulent stratocumulus would probably develop parallel to the gusty winds but they would set with the sun in the evening.  

To be complete, there are two locations on the back edge of a storm where this cloud pattern might be witnessed. One view is looking more southeasterly at the comma head of the storm. The second is gazing more toward the east and the retreating cold front. Spoiler alert - I am trying to be complete but if you find the next few paragraphs a bit heavy, jump to the Most Probable Creative Scene Investigation (CSI) Solution.

Two potential locations for Tom Thomson in order to view 
this cloud structure within a retreating autumn storm

The Comma Head Solution

In the early days of satellite meteorology, the cloud pattern of a typical storm was described as a comma, complete with a head and a tail. The dry slot is where the jet stream cuts into the back of the comma head. The concepts of conveyor belts and deformation zones would be developed soon thereafter. 

The Comma Pattern and the Beginning 
of Satellite Meteorology - Slide from another
PowerPoint Presentation

The deformation zone that defines the leading edge of the moisture of the warm conveyor belt, the comma head, is sharpest on either side of the col as illustrated in the accompanying graphic. The sharpest portion of the deformation is located in the entrance region of a local wind maximum - where the winds increase in speed in order to achieve the fastest velocity located at the maximum. I explained how deformation zones form within the atmospheric frame of reference in greater detail in the this blog:

"A Jet Streak with a Paddle". Lateral banding is favoured downstream from the local wind maximum and the cloud edge is likely to be less well-defined. 

The flow described by confluent asymptote "A" in the accompanying graphic would possess a very sharp northwestern edge - as it would at "B". With the storm exiting toward the east, location A in the graphic is the only option for Tom's location. If Tom was at B, the weather was still approaching his easel. 

The Cold Frontal Option 

In this option, Tom would be looking at the western flank of the warm conveyor belt rising along the constant energy (isentropic) surface. The sharp cloud edge would be the result of the wind increasing in speed towards the local wind maximum that creates the dry slot in the comma pattern of the cloud. There are more likely to be multiple layers of cloud in this "cold frontal" option. Essentially the cold front is the surface manifestation of the three-dimensional deformation zone skin that encases the warm and moist air. Low cloud is also more likely to be associated with the surface cold front and for these reasons, this is the less likely option in my opinion. 

The Cold Frontal Option would place Tom near A in this graphic

This would be Tom's view looking eastward

The Most Probable Creative Scene Investigation (CSI) Solution

It would have been easy to discern the weather situation if I had been painting with Tom that morning. If the cloud was drifting slowly northward to the left, we would have been looking at the back edge of the surface cold front. If the cloud was stationary or even drifting slowly to the right, we would have been looking at the confluent asymptote hemming in the comma head upstream from the col. I think Tom would have wanted to know which was the case and this may explain why he recorded this weather-scape. Weather is always interesting and it impacts our daily activities especially if we are plein air painting or canoeing. 

PowerPoint Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman
employing my 4x5 inch basswood slab version 

To summarize, the morning cloud was the retreating deformation zone of the comma head cloud edge of an intense autumn low-pressure area tracking eastward across Algonquin. Cooler and blustery west to northwest winds were blowing across the waters of the lake which would have been still warm after a summer of heating. Tom was enjoying the dramatic sunrise behind the knife-edge of cloud and looking easterly (110 degrees) toward the rising sun.

PowerPoint Slide illustrating the use of the time of year and the
location of the sunrise to adjust the viewing angle of the plein
air painting. Tom was more likely to be fishing in July so an
October plein air adventure and angle of view would be probable.

Note that the exact date of the painting would allow some further refinement on the direction of view. The location of sunrise and sunset given the day of the year is an astronomical certainty. 

A Singleton afternoon view of the retreating "comma head"
 of a low-pressure area and the associated layers of cloud.  
This cloud is clearly front-lit and bright as contrasted with
Tom's sunrise backlit and darker cloud. 

The above photographic example of a similar cloud pattern was looking east at the deformation zones of a retreating summer rain storm at 6 pm on June 13th, 2014. There were two layers of moisture hemmed in by deformation zones caused by the strong circulations around that low-pressure area. Over the course of almost two days, this storm dropped 55 mm of rain at Singleton Lake. It could have been a similar event for Tom back in 1913. This photo would be called “The Evening Cloud” although I have not turned it into a painting. 

As was his custom, Tom did not sign this plein air painting. There was no estate stamp applied as presumably W. Gordon and Doris Mills of Toronto and later Ottawa, acquired this sketch prior to 1917 and certainly before 1941 as described in the Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné compiled by Joan Murray. The painting was eventually a gift to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (70/368) by Mrs. Doris Huestis Mills Spiers of  Pickering, Ontario in 1971. 

Tom would paint a larger version of this sketch in the winter of 1913-1914. The Studio Building was completed in March 1914 but many of the artists moved in before that date - Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J. (William) Beatty, Arthur Heming, Albert Curtis Williamson, and J.E.H. MacDonald. Tom Thomson was not on the list of original Studio Building Artists but was sharing Studio 1 with A.Y. Jackson starting in January 1914. Dr. MacCallum was sponsoring Jackson and Thomson for a year (1914) and paying for their expenses if only they would devote their time to painting. That sounds like a great arrangement to me!

The Studio Building, 25 Severn Street
 Studio 1 on the ground floor

The "Morning Cloud" would have been one of the first paintings completed in Studio 1 surrounded by all of his artist friends. The studio painting "Morning Cloud" may also be found in the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is worth the trip to pay a visit to these brush strokes. 

Morning Cloud
 Alternate title: Dawn, Smoke Lake and Morning Cloud
Winter 1913–14 Oil on canvas
28 3/8 x 40 1/16 in. (72 x 101.8 cm)

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson’s Studio Building "Afternoon: Algonquin Park", 1914.

The plein air sketch and studio painting "In Algonquin Park"

The backdrop for the development of this painting was World War One which had started on July 28th,  1914 and would persist until November 11th, 1918 - more than a year after Thomson passed. Tom probably completed the sketch for this painting in late April of 1914 while staying at Camp Mowat. June and July were spent at MacCallum’s cottage on Go-Home Bay, Georgian Bay. Tom would spend the fall of 1914 in Algonquin with his co-workers and artist friends who would later form the nucleus of the Group of Seven. Tom left for Toronto on November 18th. Talk of the war would have clouded most conversations during that summer and fall. 

Jackson enlisted in June 1915
in the 60th Infantry Battalion,
Canadian Expeditionary Force

A.Y. Jackson, Thomson's partner in Studio 1 moved back to Montreal at the end of 1914 arranging to sublet his Studio Building space to Franklin Carmichael. Dr. MaCallum's year of support for both Jackson and Thomson was about to run out. 

This required Thomson to temporarily share Studio 1 with Franklin Carmichael starting in December 1914. When Carmichael married and left a few months later, Thomson could not afford the $22 monthly studio rental fee.  My Thomson friend believes that "Tom Thomson moved into "The Shack" in early 1915". "In Algonquin Park" would have been one of his last paintings completed in the Studio Building. The other future Group of Seven artists were certainly around for artistic suggestions and that influence shows in his brush strokes. 

A more important reason for Thomson to shift his operations to "The Shack" was that he had never really enjoyed working in the city. Tom felt that the Studio Building was "pretentious," and wanted to work in an environment closer to his natural wilderness settings. His obvious talent was an inspiration to the other artists, and they were unwilling to see their friend leave. MacCallum spent $176 (a considerable sum in those days and worth $2,467.68 in 2023) to refurbish the workmen's shed on the east side of the Studio Building. Tom rented the shack for $1 a month and would create some of his finest works there. It is certainly wonderful to have supportive friends but sometimes it is best to follow a more solitary, artistic journey. 

The onset of World War One had started a chain of events that would significantly impact the art of Tom Thomson. Many of Thomson’s mentors became otherwise very occupied with the war and life in general. Tom would replace the more gregarious Studio Building with the relative solitude of  "The Shack". Solitary thought can be good for one's art and lead to places where no one has painted before. Being a hermit artist is not a bad thing and late 1914 was the important watershed moment for Thomson. You can’t go anywhere new if you are following someone else. This is a vital phrase that I attempt to live by. This is just my opinion of course but look what happened to Tom's art starting in the 1915. 

In Algonquin Park 
Oil on canvas 24 7/8 x 31 15/16 in. (63.2 x 81.1 cm) 

Now back to one of Tom's last paintings from the Studio Building... Meteorologically, the revised stratocumulus cloud was certainly more convective than it should be given the late afternoon time period over a snow surface. With a northwesterly flow in late winter, there is little chance for convective lake-effect clouds to reach the Algonquin Highlands.  This is for two reasons:

• Georgian Bay would be very cold and possibly frozen over and
• Westerly winds are required to bring active snowsqualls off Georgian Bay to Canoe Lake.

The cloud was still comprised of stratocumulus streets aligned with the wind in the Shack Studio painting. The lighting on the clouds was still consistent with the late afternoon exposure. However, the energy included within those rolls of stratocumulus had to come from somewhere else and in this case, Tom's creative, inspiration provided that more vigorous convection. 

PowerPoint Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman

Art historians have suggested that the sky may have been borrowed from a JEH MacDonald painting looking south over Toronto from High Park. Tom might have borrowed the texture and colours but Jim MacDonald was looking at very vigorous towering cumuli in his painting. These towering cumulus clouds were even capable of creating waterspouts. The people walking in High Park in MacDonald’s painting seemed unconcerned with the dangerous conditions just offshore. Maybe they were weather savvy enough to realize that the towering cumulus and water spouts could not possibly come onshore in that early season cold outbreak of frigid winter air. Note that there were still leaves on the trees so JEH MacDonald’s painting could have depicted the first cold Arctic air outbreak of the fall of 1914. These early-season events associated with frigid northwesterly winds are conducive for waterspouts.

It is very likely that MacDonald painted "The Edge of the Town, Winter Sunset" concurrent with Tom working on "In Algonquin Park" in late November 1914. Aside from the clouds, there are even some strong similarities in the handling of the snow and the shadows. The composition of both paintings is really quite similar right down to the snow line and the horizon. 

The Edge of the Town, Winter Sunset, Fall 1914
JEH MacDonald

Art historians have also suggested that Tom included his shadow in the middle right of the studio version of this painting. That could very well be the case. I have attempted to re-discover that reference but sadly failed. 

Afternoon: Algonquin Park, 1914;  In Algonquin Park

Perhaps the act of Tom goofing around and painting his shadow in the final work was recorded somewhere. There was no shadow at that location in the plein air painting. Artists should also have a sense of humour and just maybe this is an example of Tom’s funny bone.

My Thomson friend has the following, very astute observations regarding the sketch and the studio painting. 

" I think it (the studio painting) is good but to me it doesn't feel quite like Tom.  There is something too controlled and citified about it (perhaps too much influence from Macdonald's painting?).  That said, it is still a good painting, though I have never been fond of the foreground snow shadows - like long bony fingers creepily reaching out for ???  The contrast between bright foreground and dark background is suggestive of the ominous events of the war in Europe, which must have been preying on everyone's mind by that stage of the game. 

The sketch has such a different feeling - lighter and warmer and conveying the pleasure of sun on one's back and a lovely early spring day in the bush. 

Tom's 'shadow' on the snow - maybe a sly joke, maybe just an artifact of his changes to the composition of the scene.  Another thing we'll never know."

Tom proudly signed this Studio Building work completed between November 18th and early December 1914. It would have been helpful if he had named it.  Over the years, this work has enjoyed alternate titles including: 

• Afternoon, Algonquin Park;
• In Algonquin Park (Winter Afternoon);
• Snow Shadows, Algonquin Park;
• Winter, Canoe Lake Winter 1914–15

This work, depicted on Thomson's studio easel that he had built himself, managed to amplify the energy of that plein air work. This larger-is-better theory is often not successful. 

Thomson's spontaneous, plein air observations recorded on canvas board, plywood, and even cigar-box lids, carried an intimate interpretation of the nature he saw, felt and loved.  This portrayal of honest emotion is often lost in carefully constructed and executed studio compositions. 

On December 13, 1914, "In Algonquin Park" was exhibited as part of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Patriotic Fund Sale. The painting was purchased by another artist, Marion Long for $50 (about $1300 CDN in 2023).  There was no HST in those days.

It is a wonderful validation to have another artist appreciate and purchase the efforts of peers. "The Red Vineyard" is the only painting that Vincent Van Gogh is certain to have sold during his lifetime. Belgian artist Anna Boch purchased that painting for 400 francs at the "Les XX" exhibition in Brussels in March 1890 - four months before Vincent's death (actually a tragic homicide but that is another story). Even that sale was probably motivated by friendship as Anna Boch's brother Eugène Boch was a close buddy of Vincent. "The Red Vineyard" is currently hanging in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow. The initial 400 franc investment would be worth about $1360 CDN today. Of course, any original Van Gogh painting would attract an unimaginable amount today. Vincent's "Orchard with Cypresses" sold for $117.2 million USD at Christie's New York in 2022

Robert and Signe McMichael would acquire "In Algonquin Park" from Miss Long in 1966 in memory of Norman and Evelyn McMichael (Robert's parents). I am a close personal friend of the dentist for the McMichaels.  I have spent quite some time in front of this particular painting - one of Tom's finest works in my personal opinion of course. Of course, I am partial to what Tom painted when he moved to "The Shack". 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date. 

Tom Thomson’s Sketch Afternoon: Algonquin Park, 1914.

Tom’s motivation to “record” this particular observation – the cloud structures combined with the colour of old snow and the rich sunset hues. Tom did love to paint sunsets!

In Algonquin Park Sketch Winter
Sketch for "In Algonquin Park"
Alternate titles: Sketch for Afternoon, Algonquin Park;
Winter Fall 1914
Oil on wood 8 9/16 x 10 1/2 in. (21.7 x 26.7 cm)
Tom's Standard Paint Box Size

The horizon is just below the midpoint in the composition. I believe that Tom was actually torn between making this a skyscape because of his interest in those clouds and a landscape drawn by the shadows across the snow. I would have faced the same turmoil! For our application, Tom painted enough clues into both that we can conclusively apply Creative Scene Investigation (CSI) to the pigments. 

This is certainly a sky filled with streets of stratocumulus aligned along northwesterly winds. This implies a thoroughly mixed planetary boundary layer and thus low-level instability during midday. The northwesterly winds were certainly stronger earlier in the afternoon but with the setting sun and the associated increasing stability, the winds must be diminishing making this plein air painting experience very enjoyable indeed. Plus, there were certainly no biting insects to mix into those oils. 

Creative Scene Investigation (CSI) - What we know. 

Timing: The shadows are the sundial for any plein air art timing. The word “Afternoon” is a generous gift from the title. Late afternoon can be determined from the colour of the illumination and Rayleigh scattering which removes the blue light from the spectrum of the direct beam originating from the sun. Only the longer wavelength red and orange hues are left in the direct beam from the setting sun to brighten the scene. 

Date: The winter season was another giveaway given the snow on the ground. Tom returned to Mowat Lodge and Algonquin in late April 1914 and it is likely that this plein air painting recorded a late-season snow event. 

April of 1914 was particularly severe with a violent winter storm. Seventy-seven sealers froze to death on the ice off the southeast coast of Labrador. During the peak of that storm from March 31 to April 2, the temperature was -23°C over Labrador with winds from the northwest at 64 km/h. This storm would have delivered Arctic air and snow to the Algonquin Highlands. It is probable that Tom Thomson recorded this scene soon after he arrived at Mowat in late April. 

The climatology for Algonquin reveals that April typically sees 2.6 days with more than a trace of snow with 10.5 centimetres being recorded for the month. Significant snowfalls used to be common events over the Algonquin Highlands right up to Mother's Day in May.  Climate change has changed that during the last century.  

Direction of view: From the late afternoon timing and winter season, the shadows indicate that Tom was looking easterly to southeasterly with the shadows pointing like a sundial to the northeast.

Weather Situation: A high-pressure ridge was building in, causing subsidence in the air mass and a flattening of the turbulent stratocumulus cloud tops in the distance. Meteorologists refer to this common cloud top flattening as a “subsidence inversion”. As dry air sinks adiabatically (constant total energy within the parcel of air), the air parcels warm faster than the moist air thus creating a clear lid to the existing cloud. When a parcel of moist air subsides, some of the warming is offset by evapourative cooling as some water droplets transform into water vapour (Consult the Ideal Gas Law PV=nRT). In any event, the surface pressure was rising and the air was getting cooler.

Wind Direction: the cloud shape reveals that the wind had a left-to-right component and was thus northwesterly. The turbulent stratocumulus clouds were aligned in streets parallel to that wind direction. The wind at the surface was westerly (backed roughly 45 degrees from aloft due to friction and the Ekmann Spiral (for more information see "Meteorology Meets Oceanography" and "Adding Friction to the Wind Balance"). The amount of backing was probably the maximum amount allowed due to increasing stability from surface cooling and the approaching ridge of high pressure. 

Weather forecast: The skies would continue to clear and the surface winds would diminish to calm after sunset. Continued subsidence would cause the cloud tops to sink right through the cloud bases - poof, the cloud would vanish! The amount of cloud cover would also diminish with the winds since turbulent mixing was evidently required to raise the surface air parcels to their lifted condensation level. Aside from any upslope areas, it would be absolutely clear overnight with all of the stars visible. Cloud waves perpendicular to the northwesterly winds aloft could develop at the top of any upslope area where clouds might persist within the developing nocturnal inversion. Temperatures would be colder than they were the previous night.

The next day would be mainly sunny and dry with the high-pressure area. The surface winds would be light. The snow would not melt even if the temperature climbed above freezing due to the dryness of the air mass in the ridge. Any snow that does sublimate directly into water vapour must take heat energy from the snowpack in order to escape as a gas. The sublimation of snow in a dry air mass cools the snowpack and quickly eliminates any sublimation. Surprisingly, snow does not melt when the air is dry. 

Slide from Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman

Tom would have been on the north side of the upper jet stream in the area of northwesterly winds and turbulent stratocumulus.

A spring-time image of a very similar weather situation 
revealing that Tom observed and painted real clouds and 
everyday weather situations.

Painterly Observations: The afternoon is one of the best times to paint for warm colours!  The colour confirms this as a late afternoon sketch. Knowing the time and the shadows confirm almost the exact angle of the view. This also confirms the wind direction and thus the meteorology behind the entire scene.  It is blinding to paint looking into the sun over a snow surface and this is another example of Tom painting with the sun on his back.  The sun feels good on your back and both the canvas and the scene are illuminated by the same light, which benefits the artist.

May I suggest an interesting generalization for the northern hemisphere with the prevailing wind directions being westerly and the plein air paintings mainly done looking toward the north away from the sun? There is a pleasing and perhaps subconscious tendency to follow the winds and read the painting from left to right. This is how most people in American society read books.  Perhaps it is also how most people view paintings and even decide on what to paint.  If the winds are easterly and the artist is looking north, one is not as likely to be painting outside anyway as it is more probable to be precipitating. As an aside, plein air artists can still paint in the rain (or snow) but first, they must coat the canvas or surface with something like linseed oil so that the oil paint will “stick”.  If the canvas gets wet, oils will simply slip and slide off the watery surface.

Notice there is little chance of Tom’s shadow being in the painting and it certainly is not in this sketch even if it might have surfaced in his studio version - more of this in the next post. 

Tom did not sign or name this painting as was his custom for his plein air weather observations. This sketch belonged to Tom's close friend and future Group of Seven artist, Franklin Carmichael. Fellow artists often swap work. The sketch passed to Franklin's daughter Ada and then to Mary Mastin of Toronto in 1945. This weather observation was eventually gifted to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg by Mr. and Mrs. R.G. Mastin of Toronto in 1980. 

I have been nose-to-nose with this sketch many times. In fact, I spent a lot of time at The McMichael when we lived at Watershed Farm on the 12th Concession of King Township. I was the "McMichael Artist in Residence" on September 30th, 2007 when I painted like Tom Thomson and encountered Emily Carr. It was a fictional meeting that never occurred in real life but lots of fun nonetheless. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

PS: Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - Summary As of Now contains all of the entries to date.