Tom Thomson's Islands Canoe Lake, 1916

The high horizon identifies this sketch as a landscape. However, the sky in the top quarter of the panel is enough to weave some interesting meteorology in conjunction with the wave action on the lake. The brushwork is also reminiscent of that found in the previous entry "Tom Thomson's Petawawa Gorges; Night 1916" and it is logical to continue the tale of Tom Thomson's trail from where we left off. I can explain.

Islands Canoe Lake, 1916 
Height: 21.4 cm (8.4 in); width: 26.2 cm (10.3 in)
Tom's Paintbox Size;

McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Tom Thomson's catalogue raisonné for this painting suggests an alternate title as "Grand Lake at Achray Spring 1916". Further investigation based on the McElroy research finds "this sketch is definitely not at Achray and not anywhere on Grand Lake.  Aside from the fact that there are very few islands in Grand Lake, the islands that are there are mostly quite small and are far apart from each other, and also are not heavily treed like the ones in the sketch." 

As mentioned several times, Tom's art was largely catalogued by his friends after his passing in July 1917. In 1916, his group of artist friends were occupied by World War One, family or simply trying to get by. The life of an artist is rarely easy. Their notes were written on the back of the paintings after World War One ended and the artists reassembled to remember their lost friend. 

His closest painting buddy probably got it right as written on the back of the panel: "probably "Canoe Lake" / painted by Tom Thomson / A.Y.J.". Lawren Harris was mistaken with his guess: "Grand Lake At Achray -LRH ". MacDonald, one of my favourite artists, certified the sketch as one of Tom's and certainly got the year correct: "Tom Thomson 1916 / J.E.H. MacDonald".  Tom could have saved us all a lot of effort if he had just pencilled in a few notes. 

My map of Canoe Lake and the landforms in Tom's "Islands"
tentatively identified.

I believe I have been to this exact painting location on Hayhurst Point looking southerly across the expanse of Canoe Lake. The red foliage suggests an autumn painting as opposed to "spring" as indicated in Tom Thomson's catalogue raisonné. His brushwork was very similar to that he used in "Petawawa Gorges; Night 1916" and artists tend to find a groove and get pleasantly stuck there for at least a few paintings. 

Tom had just spent a summer of fire ranging and the pent-up artistic energy was about to be unleashed in his post Studio Building era. Tom was at Basin Depot on Wednesday, October 4th, 1916 to mail a letter to his patron Dr. James MacCallum inviting him to come to Algonquin to paint the "fall colour". Tom was "not fired yet but I am hoping to be put off right away"  so he had to return to Achray to be a fire ranger for a bit longer. However, Tom was planning to paint and the "fall colour .. by the end of the week will be at its best".

Travelling by train back to Toronto would have made a stop at Canoe Lake easy. A layover at Canoe Lake would have allowed Tom a chance to relax and camp at his favourite spot on Hayhurst Point. Some autumn fishing and painting would have been a fine way to spend some time. Why be in a rush to get back to Toronto where the side effects of the war were still raging? Tom did return to Toronto by early November 1916 but that left almost four weeks with possibly a big chunk of that spent at Canoe Lake surrounded by friends. Of course, I was not there and cannot be certain but I have an open mind and am very open to any positive and thoughtful suggestions. 

Now for the weather.. this story is all about gravity waves. I have written many times about how wind waves can be superimposed on swells but first some background physics. Consider "Keep an Open Mind", "Wind Waves and Swells and Lines in the Sky" and "Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Even More Gravity Wave Clouds" for more background information although there are certainly more.

Wind waves are generated with the wind. Every wave starts as small ripples and a simple breeze which grow with time as the kinetic energy of the wind is transferred into the vertical oscillations which are gravity waves. The wavelength and amplitude of gravity waves increase directly with the wind speed. 

Swells are longer wavelength gravity waves that propagate great distances from where they were generated by strong winds. During the course of their trip, the energy from the shorter wavelengths and higher frequency wind wave cascade to the longer wavelength and lower frequency swells. The wavelength of swells increases with distance from the source while the amplitude decreases relatively slowly.

The wind speed in the source area relates directly to the amplitude of the swell. The swells will also persist longer in those cases where the winds in the source area were persistent for a longer period. The jet stream maximum winds that energize every weather system are the source of these atmospheric ocean swells. 

Back lit large (long wavelength), alternating dark and light bands
of clouds on the southern horizon are swells in the atmospheric
ocean originating from strong jet stream winds far to the south 

Gravity waves are everywhere perpendicular to the wind direction that causes the original vertical displacement of the air parcels. Wind waves superimposed on the swells can reveal where you are in terms of the conveyor belt conceptual model. If the wind waves as generated on-site turn cyclonically (remember your Coriolis Hand with your thumb pointing upward), the wind perpendicular to those wind waves also turns cyclonically with respect to that which generated the swells. The view is of the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. 

If the wind waves turn anticyclonically with respect to that which generated the swells, the view is looking at the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt.

If the wind waves and swells are parallel, then the wind direction that created both are also parallel and the col of the deformation zone is overhead or you are closer to the source region for the swells. 

I tried to explain all of this in the mid-1980s when I taught at the Training Branch for the then Atmospheric Environment Service. Placing this information within the atmospheric frame of reference was a challenging concept to understand - a tough sell so to speak and I could barely get past "sun glint". I was restrained to the chalk board and hand waving to explain these concepts. PowerPoint did not exist then. 

I have continued to refine and practice the delivery of this material over the decades. I even took it to COMET in Boulder, Colorado. Most of this frame of reference material is yet to be published but it is so very important to understand clouds within the atmospheric frame that shape the moisture patterns. The cloud shapes and the superimposition of wind waves on swells can tell you much about the weather. 

 

Looking at Tom's painting, I tried to decipher how the smaller cloud elements and wind waves lined up with the larger, alternating dark and light swells. This effort was an attempt to discover which side of the deformation zone was approaching Canoe Lake using the technique described above. I could not convince myself definitively whether those wind waves curled cyclonically or anticyclonically relative to the swells. And remember, I am pretty gullible but could not be convinced.

Another Attempt at a 3D Graphic to explain this Vital Perspective of Frame of Reference.
This view closely represents Tom's view on that afternoon in the autumn of 1916.
The view mimics the earth-bound perspective of an approaching warm conveyor belt. 
In an actual situation, the drift of the wind waves will reveal which portion of the warm
conveyor belt is approaching your position. The cyclonic companion will bring more
weather initially but remember, eventually the entire conveyor belt conceptual model must
pass to you east with the guiding jet stream.

Islands, Canoe Lake 1916

Also, note that the right (west) side of the panel is brighter and I suspect some late afternoon sunlight was illuminating the scene. This fact further refines the timing of the sketch to later in the day. 

The somewhat turbulent and convective altocumulus on the southern horizon is also consistent with the warm conveyor belt and most probably, the unstable and stronger cyclonic companion. A case could be made that the wind waves were turned cyclonically to the atmospheric swells (note the subtle dashed red lines inserted above the horizon that line up with the cloud elements and also the direction of the brush strokes). I was afraid that I was the only one that I could convince with this proposal.

It is important to note that the wave action seems unaffected by the shoreline. This implies that the winds were southerly. Otherwise, the high and rocky shore would certainly provide lee shelter from the winds had they been northerly in direction. Southerly surface winds under the warm conveyor belt further allow us to deduce that the cold conveyor belt was quite weak. In addition, the surface wind direction and speed of the cold conveyor belt can be used to conclude that the weather system was also rather weak and/or moving quickly with the jet stream. The weather with the approaching warm conveyor belt would come and go quickly. For those who are interested, I explained the science behind these deductions in "Weather Lessons for Everyone from the Cold Conveyor Belt Wizard". 

Someone with imagination and science can certainly weave an interesting tale out of those brush strokes - but one can never be utterly confident that the story is absolutely true and not a work of science fiction. To be a hundred percent certain, I would have needed to be painting alongside Tom Thomson and watching how the wind waves drifted in the atmospheric frame of reference. That would have been fun!

After Tom's passing, "Islands, Canoe Lake" was fittingly acquired by his artist friend  J.E.H. MacDonald of Thornhill. Jim's son, Thoreau inherited the sketch. You might recall that I used a quote from Thoreau as motivation to begin writing "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" many years ago. Thoreau MacDonald (1901-1989), wrote:

“Thomson’s work would be a fine study for some competent critic, but anyone attempting it should be familiar, not only with every phase of his work but with the country too, lakes, rivers, weather; have them in his bones … “

By descent, the art passed through several other hands before reaching those of  Robert McMichael of Kleinburg. In 1966,  the founders Robert and Signe McMichael gifted this painting to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and ultimately the people of Canada. 

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. 

PSS: The weather that Tom observed and painted occurs regularly in the atmospheric ocean. Here is the reality of the winter storm of February 23rd, 2023 approaching Singleton with the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt on the horizon.  

Wednesday morning February 22nd, 2023
Watch for the drift of the wind waves and point your Coriolis
fingers in that direction. Drifting contrails can be helpful as well.
Tom did not have jet contrails to monitor the atmospheric 
frame of reference winds in his day.

The corresponding cold conveyor belt was strong easterly
with very chilly winds. As a result, one could deduce that the
approaching low-pressure area was intense, slow-moving or both
Winter Storm Warnings were hoisted and verified.

The wind waves are most obvious when they are nearly perpendicular to the swells. This occurs near the leading edge of the warm conveyor belt (WCB) with the deformation zone. At the time of the cloud, a definitive assessment of the location with respect to the WCB can be made by simply observing the drift of the wind waves. The wind waves will move with the system relative winds relative to the col. Pointing your Coriolis fingers in the direction of that drift will reveal which companion and which side of the deformation zone col you are under. If there is no obvious lateral drift of the wind waves, you are more likely closer to the central axis of the WCB.  Such was probably the case for Thomson.

Phil Chadwick