Tom Thomson's Sketch for "The Drive" Fall 1916

At first glance, people might wonder where the weather can be found in this painting. The bright, front-lit overcast altostratus sky does not contain much detail. Stratus clouds do not resemble anything but an elevated layer of fog in the sky. 

Sketch for "The Drive"
Alternate titles: Jam?; Log Drive?; The Jam?; The Log Drive?, Fall 1916
Oil on composite wood-pulp board 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (21.6 x 26.7 cm), 
Tom's Paint Box Size, Catalogue 1916.102 

But there is a tremendous amount of science within these brushstrokes - displayed right before the inquisitive eye. I can't make it through a day without thinking about the Coriolis effect. A search of my blogs will reveal many such references attempting to explain what we experience every day. One of my favourites is "The Solution to Cloud Swirls Can Be Found in Your Hands".

Simply, we live on a globe that spins cyclonically. The shallow layer of atmosphere is not attached to anything. The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the zone of interaction between the atmosphere and the spinning Earth. A frame of reference attached to the Earth is a non-inertial frame. Humans always like to think they are the centre of the universe but clearly, that is not now or ever the case. Humans are always non-inertially accelerating and attached to the spinning Earth. This explains why I studied the weather from a frame of reference attached to the moving air but that is another, very long story for another day. 

Humans have invented some ingenious fictitious forces to help us understand what we observe in any fluid on the Earth. The Coriolis and centrifugal forces actually appear real from our non-inertial vantage. Employing these forces allows us to better understand our existence on a spinning globe. 

Let me very briefly explain. 

At the poles where the Coriolis effect is the maximum, point your Coriolis thumb upward (your right thumb for the northern hemisphere and the left thumb for the south pole). Your fingers must curl in the same sense as the rotation of the Earth. The Coriolis force is zero at the Equator. 

Now imagine that you are at the North Pole. At the North Pole, every direction is toward the south. Release balloons with a "southward" push. Any direction will do! Within the atmospheric frame of reference, the balloon must continue moving in a straight line. From our vantage, we rotate cyclonically attached to the Earth and the ballon appears to be deflected to the right. The Coriolis force is used to explain that deviation. The Coriolis force deflects any moving object cyclonically. With the palm of your Coriolis Hand facing up and the fingers pointing in the direction of the moving objects, the Coriolis thumb must point in the direction of the Coriolis deflection. The Coriolis force can be used to explain the highs and lows of pressure systems in the atmosphere. Supposedly, one could apply these techniques on any planet to understand the swirls and whirls of the fluids - something I have yet to do. 

After gunpowder was invented, it was discovered that the Coriolis effect had to be considered if you wanted to come close to hitting something with your canon at shooting distances of 1,000 metres and beyond. 

At what distance does Coriolis take effect?

Studies in North America have shown that most people tend to turn right upon entering a store. Whether that is because of the Coriolis force, driving habits or because most people are right-handed is unknown. Regardless, stores are designed to consider this deflection steering people to the right and supposedly keeping them in the store and spending money. It is not clear if shoppers in the Southern Hemisphere turn left.

If a walker does not have a distant goal point in sight, for instance in a thick fog, their path will drift consistently either to the left or right, eventually bringing them around in a circle back to the area where they started. Are lost hikers in the northern hemisphere more likely to steer to the right? Do lost walkers south of the equator turn to the left? 

Cyclonic swirl down the drain... 
The swirls can develop naturally but
can be made to go either way
"with a bit of a push". 
Try the bathtub as well. 

Is the flow deflected in the kitchen sink? The flow is inward and disappears like a low-pressure area in the atmosphere. One would expect the swirl to be cyclonic and it often is! Is it just a random direction of circulation or can Coriolis deflection still play a role even at that minuscule scale? Hmmm...

Regardless, Tom painted what he saw! The logs were deflected to the right coming out of the sluiceway. Did the loggers intentionally direct the logs cyclonically as they came out of the dam? Did the logs just naturally deflect to the right? Was it perhaps just the current and the contours of the river that controlled the motion of the timbers? Maybe the loggers had learnt that it was easier not to resist the natural Coriolis forces? It might be effortless to push the logs to the right consistent with the Coriolis effect to get the logs further downstream.

In "Tom Thomson's Abandoned Logs", the astute reader might have noticed that the so-called "abandoned" logs were all jammed up on the right side of the current looking downstream. Was the location of the pile of logs a coincidence or perhaps the Coriolis force? Maybe that collection of "abandoned" logs was not the result of the current and Coriolis force making a pile six logs high on the west bank at all - maybe it was a "landing". 

A Thomson friend correctly identified that tall pile of logs as a "landing". A log landing is a place where trees and logs are gathered and sorted during a logging operation for further processing and transport. The lumbermen were certainly not done with that collection of valuable timber. Would really clever lumbermen always position a landing on the right bank of the river looking downstream? The Coriolis force can even explain this!

A current that is always being deflected to the right by the Coriolis force would tend to chew away at that bank of the water course over the years. The granite of the Canadian Shield makes for a difficult "chew" but a soil-based shoreline is easier to digest and erode. If I am paddling along a river with an earthen shore, I always look for the deeper channel on the right side going with the flow. Just wondering if the lumbermen would play the same probability. Hmmm....

These musings are intended to be interesting and maybe amusing. I offer no definitive answer. The Coriolis effect is important at 1000 metres but at what shorter distance is that cyclonic deviation still noticeable? On a personal note, I tend to deflect to the right but I am dyslexic and right-handed and obviously not a reliable observer. Hmmm....

I did not convince my Thomsom friend either: 

"Have to admit I would never have thought of interpreting that sketch in this way.  That said, I don't really buy the Coriolis theory of how the logs are moving below the dam (apologies for raining on your parade).  There is a strong flush of water through the sluiceway that hits the calmer water and creates a lot of turbulence, hence logs bobbing up and down and in some cases being momentarily vertical.  Once that hits the widening of the waterway downstream of the dam, everything spreads out.  It looks as though the right shore (all rights and lefts in these comments will be from the viewer's point of view) is fairly close to the flow, which would tend to push things to the left.  Also, we don't know what the contours of the bottom might be, or what effect that might have on the circulation. The water is high enough to intrude into the trees on either side of the widening, which probably adds to the confusion.  The logs in the foreground are mostly just floating there in the ripples spreading out from the turbulence, and waiting for the loggers to push them into the central current and on their way downstream.

 I don't think the definitive research has yet been done.  Anyway, all entertaining to think about how nature works"

Clearly as described in "Tom Thomson's Abandoned Logs", the torrent of water flowing through the sluiceway of the dam identifies this as a spring painting. Thomson was observing the work of the loggers using the spring meltwater to get the logs downstream and to market. This was a spring painting and not the fall of 1916!

The large dam possibly recorded in "Abandoned Logs" was located downstream (east) of Carcajou Lake, at the outlet of a significant widening of the creek. The landing for the "abandoned logs" would have been about 100 metres downstream from the dam on the west bank of the muddy and rocky shore of Carcajou Creek. Tom was looking northwesterly with the large hill in the distance for both "Abandoned Logs" and the sketch for "The Drive". 

Map maker Jeffrey McMurtrie has produced some terrific and educational maps ideal for hiking and canoeing in Algonquin Park Please visit "Maps by Jeff" for the most recent version. This map of Carcajou Creek is from Version 5 of that continually improving series. 

It would have been a short stroll of only 100 metres (from the end of the 110-metre portage) for Tom to get to the location immediately south of that dam to record the sketch for "The Drive". The loggers would have been busy directing the logs through the sluiceway. The original wood dam from 1916 rotted away long ago but the forested hill and the rocks that were once used in the dam are still there. 

When Tom was on location making a plein air observation, he painted pretty much what he saw. Artistic licence can take over in the Studio to move subject matter around. Even so, it is interesting to note that the basic bones of the sketch can still be found in the larger studio composition. 

Tom added some front-lit patches of altostratus cloud in the studio version of "The Drive" but the hill and the basic shape of the painting remain unaltered. Even the location of the three loggers is identical between the two works. 

Also, note the conspicuous stab of blue paint within the tangle of logs in the middle at the bottom of Tom's sketch for "The Drive".  

Harris and MacDonald did their best but these paintings were in the spring of 1916 and not the fall of 1916 or even 1915. The studio version of  "The Drive" was completed in the Shack during Tom's final winter of 1916-1917. 

The Drive, Alternate titles: Drive, South River; Log Chute; The Log Chute, Winter 1916–17, Oil on canvas, 47 1/4 x 54 1/8 in. (120 x 137.5 cm), 1916-1917.17

The studio painting "The Drive" may be seen as part of the University of Guelph Collection at the Art Gallery of Guelph, Ontario Agricultural College. It was wisely purchased with funds raised by students, faculty and staff in 1926.

“Abandoned Logs” and  “The Drive Sketch”  were even possibly painted on the same day in the spring of 1916 after his fishing trip during the last two weeks of April. Thomson painted some masterworks during that holiday with Lawren Harris, Lawren’s cousin Chester Harris, and his patron Dr. MacCallum. Thomson would have then had some free time in the Grand Lake area before his forest ranger job got busy.  

Thomson could easily record a dozen panels a day. On that day in May 1916, Tom could have recorded  “Abandoned Logs” with the first light at sunrise. It would have been natural to be Coriolis deflected to the right and follow the western bank of Carcajou Creek to the north. Tom would have encountered the lumbermen hard at work sending more logs downstream to the landing recorded in “Abandoned Logs”. The altostratus skies were consistent. The cold front would have gone through and a brisk west to southwest wind would have made for pleasant painting conditions. Of course, I was not there and no one will know for certain - bit it seems very plausible to me. Hmmm... 

Note that the Estate Stamp was only applied to the back of the Sketch for "The Drive" panel. There is no evidence that it was applied either in the lower right or lower left of the front of the panel. I wonder why? 

There were a large number of alternate titles: Jam?; Log Drive?; The Jam?; The Log Drive?, Harris and MacDonald did not really know what to make of this sketch. They definitely got the timing wrong as the fall of 1916 - it was painted on a day in May 1916 when Thomson was in the Grand Lake area getting ready to become a forest ranger.  

“The Drive Sketch” as it would have appeared
in Tom's paint box. The “Abandoned Logs”
would have been in the next slot behind
the current sketch. 

Inscriptions verso: 

• c., estate stamp; 
• l.r., estate stamp; 
• u.c., in graphite, TT58; 
• u.l., in ink, AM; 
• l.c., in graphite, No 59 Mrs Harkness Thomson Collection @ Art Gallery of Ontario 

Provenance: 

• Estate of the artist Elizabeth Thomson Harkness, Annan and Owen Sound 
• George Thomson, New Haven, Connecticut and Owen Sound, Ontario, 
• 1937 Mellors Fine Arts, Toronto, 1937 
• Laing Galleries, Toronto, 1970 
• Private collection, Toronto 
• Thomson Collection @ Art Gallery of Ontario

This painting went to Thomson’s eldest sister upon his passing. Elizabeth's husband was Thomas “Tom” J. Harkness who was appointed by the Thomson family to look after the affairs of Tom’s estate. T. J. and Elizabeth lived in Annan, Ontario, just east of Owen Sound. From Elizabeth, aka "Mrs. Harkness", the painting went to her older brother George Thomson and hence into the world of galleries eventually ending up as part of the Thomson Collection at the  Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) where I first saw it - nose to nose. 

The Lord Thomson of Fleet

By the way, the Thomson Collection was the most significant private art collection in Canada. Ken Thomson gifted 2,000 outstanding works to the AGO. The collection features signature works by Canadian artists from the 19th to mid-20th century, with some 300 works from the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson.

Ken Thomson was a Canadian/British businessman and not any relation to Tom. At the time of Lord Thomson's death in Toronto on June 12, 2006 at the age of 82 years, he was listed by Forbes as the richest person in Canada and the ninth richest person in the world, with a net worth of approximately US $19.6 billion.

Thank you again to my Thomson friends for bringing history to life and making it fun. I certainly learned a few things during this adventure. Life is good!

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: Have you ever taken a nap after lunch in a reclining swivel chair with a footrest - maybe even just pretended to snooze. Do you get a sense of rotation and if so, which direction is the rotation? I rotate cyclonically. This is not definitive proof in any sense, just a sensation. Leave me a comment if you feel so reclined. 

Tom Thomson's Abandoned Logs Fall 1915

Without intimate knowledge of the painting location and the direction of view, one is forced to trust solely on the weather. Harris and MacDonald needed a firm grasp of both location and viewing angle in the spring of 1918 to correctly name and label Tom's art. They had assumed the gargantuan task of sorting through the stack of Thomson panels to construct the initial Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné. Much research has been diligently completed on that Catalogue Raisonné in the past century but there is still much to do. 

If one searches the Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné for "sunrise" only one painting surfaces. If one searches for "sunset" 25 works appear. Thomson was very much a morning person and many of those sunsets were actually sunrises as we have demonstrated in many Creative Scene Investigations. 

Photograph taken from 40 miles west of the volcano
showing the huge column of volcanic ash and gas.
(Photograph taken by R.E. Stinson;
 courtesy of the National Park Service.)

One of my favourite studies was when Thomson recorded the impacts of the eruption of  Lassen Peak in California on the skies around Canoe Lake.  The old volcano had been dormant for 27,000 years but exploded around 4 pm local time (7 pm at Canoe Lake) on Saturday, May 22nd. Within 30 minutes, the explosive debris reached 30,000 ft (9,100 m) - well into the stratosphere. The sulphate aerosols blasted into the atmosphere would start arriving at Canoe Lake 24 hours later. Tom did at least four skyscapes that weekend and all used the word "sunset" in the assigned name. We know that two of those paintings were actually sunrises by investigating the structures in Tom's paintings and comparing those to the terrain around Canoe Lake. See "Tom Thomson's Sunset Sky, Spring 1915" for the details of that Creative Scene Investigation (CSI). It would have been very helpful if Tom had left just a few hints. 

The colourful clouds in "Abandoned Logs" also encourage the interpretation of this scene as a sunset skyscape - forcing a view toward the northeast. Admittedly, that was certainly my first impression as well. But being cautious, I reached out to my Thomson friends for possible details on where this painting might have been done. I did not wish to fall into the same obvious trap as Harris and MacDonald. 

Abandoned Logs Fall 1915
Oil on composite wood-pulp board
8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (21.6 x 26.6 cm)
Tom's paint box size, 1915.86

I was not surprised when my reliable Thomson friends came to the rescue! Rocks and hills tell the real story and they do not lie. It takes boots on the ground to get to the truth.. and the actual painting location.

The forests around Grand Lake were heavily harvested. The prime timber around Carcajou Lake was sent downstream to Wenda Lake on the way to market. In the 1800s, dams were strategically built along the creeks linking the lakes. The dams held back the spring meltwater and allowed the lumbermen to flush the harvested logs along with the floods and get the valuable timber closer to market. As ingenious as these plans were, logs would get temporarily jammed up like those on Thomson's panel.

My Thomson friends have explored the area extensively and have acquired a wealth of knowledge of the activities of the lumbermen, Tom Thomson and the Algonquin Park Rangers from that era.  Tom Thomson's "Abandoned Logs" reminded my Thomson friends of one particular dam located on Carcajou Creek at the large red "X" on the following map. The painting was completed about a hundred metres downstream from the dam. Tom would have been standing not far from where the current portage heading upstream begins… makes sense!

Map maker Jeffrey McMurtrie has produced some terrific and educational maps ideal for hiking and canoeing in Algonquin Park Please visit "Maps by Jeff" for the most recent version. This map of Carcajou Creek is from Version 5 of that continually improving series. 

The large dam possibly recorded in "Abandoned Logs" was located downstream (east) of Carcajou Lake, at the outlet of a significant widening of the creek. My Thomson friend writes:

"the remaining rocks extend well into the bush on both sides of the waterway (Carcajou Creek).  The very large rock was incorporated into the structure and probably hidden in a wooden crib surrounded by smaller rocks.  There are still rocks all the way across the creek, but the beavers have covered them up with their sticks.  I mentioned multiple dams, but the others were mostly much smaller.  Again, the rocks remain as annoying obstructions in the creek, and the beavers have used them as a support for their sticks."

As  Jeffrey McMurtrie remarks on his map, "Low water can be an issue between Carcajou and Wenda Lakes". It would have been a likely spot for logs to get jammed up.

Tom painted "Tea Lake Dam, Fall 1915" showing a similar dam and sluiceway. The dam on the creek was much more modest but still serviceable. The following image of a "Splash Dam" would have been a large version of what held back the spring meltwater of Carcajou Creek. 

The following photos tell the story of the dam on Carcajou Creek and the possible painting location for Tom's "Abandoned Logs". 

Thomson was in the Grand Lake area in the spring of 1916 after his fishing trip during the last two weeks of April with Lawren Harris, Lawren’s cousin Chester Harris, and his patron Dr. MacCallum. The clincher for me was that the view looked toward the northwest given the orientation of Carcajou Creek. 

Another Thomson friend correctly identified the collection of logs as a "landing". A log landing is a place where trees and logs are gathered and sorted during a logging operation for further processing and transport. The lumbermen were certainly not done with that collection of valuable timber. It would have taken quite an unlikely flow of water to construct that pile which was at least six logs tall above the shore. 

The scene in "Abandoned Logs" was front-lit. The sun had to be on Tom's back which is the preferable option for plein air painting anyway. Tom was looking northwestward! The clouds tell the rest of the story which is summarized in the following graphics. 

Tom was located at the cold front of the weather system looking northwestward. The cyclonic companion of the dry conveyor belt was providing some lift for the cumulus. Unsaturated air following the dry adiabatic constant energy surfaces into the ground also brought strong and turbulent winds to the surface. 

The following graphic is from the perspective of the dry conveyor belt looking eastward. The rising sun could easily illuminate the mid-level altostratus. The cumulus was only reached by the rays that had passed through a long expanse of atmosphere. Raleigh scattering had been removed the blue light from the direct beam leaving only longer wavelengths to cast the pinkish hue.  

Water vapour (WV) imagery is ideal for viewing the atmosphere's three-dimensional characteristics. It was my specialty and one can virtually see the dry conveyor belt plunging down to the earth. The cyclonic and anticyclonic companions swirl in opposite directions. Note how the anticyclonic companion looks darker (lower and drier) in the WV imagery. 

The estate stamp circled in the lower right of the panel

Harris and MacDonald certainly did their best with that stack of Thomson panels in the spring of 1918. They wisely and possibly, intentionally refrained from including either "sunrise" or "sunset" in the title of this painting. However "Abandoned Logs Fall 1915" does not convey the reality of Thomson's painting session. The logs were too valuable and were only hung up temporarily. The spring meltwater was taking that lumber to market in early May of 1916. Tom was having tons of fun with lots of paint and fauve brush strokes on the small wood-pulp board. Sometimes the best art is created when you are completely out of control.

Abandoned Logs Fall 1915

Nostalgically, I imagined that Thomson was camping near the sluiceway following the activities of the lumbermen. He might have been awakened by the strong winds of the cold front tossing the tops of the trees around. A heavy rain shower could have even pounded his tent. Awake with the sun rising, Tom was ready to paint. The light of dawn reached the higher cloud first but his attention was certainly drawn to the bright fragments of pink cumulus being torn and twisted by the turbulent winds.  The logs along the creek were the last thing to catch the rays of sunrise. The butt ends of the timber caught the red of sunrise. Tom was chasing the light with his brush and recording something special. 

My Thomson friend reminded me that Tom was more likely not roughing it but simply staying in the logging or ranger camps - warm, dry and easy... 

"There were buildings at Wenda Lake, now long gone.  I don't know the vintage of the ranger cabin on Wenda, but it might have been there also.  There appears to have been some sort of logging camp or mill on Carcajou Lake."

I only ever had a small tent when canoe tripping and would read "Adventures in Real Life" out of the Reader's Digest by my candle lantern - to whoever was travelling with me. Each character in the story was assigned an appropriate but different voice. My simple experiences coloured what I thought Thomson might have been doing. Similar to "anthropomorphism" I projected my emotional and behavioural characteristics to another canoeist, overlooking the simpler facts. Maybe that was an act of  "nostalomorphism", a new "ism" I made up... 

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., estate stamp

 Inscription verso: 

• u.r., graphite, Mr. W.P. MacKenzie [sic]; 
• u.l., in graphite, 1915; 
• on Art Gallery of Toronto label, Nov 8-63, Mrs Douglas Simpson Algonquin Restoration McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1974.3) 

Provenance: 

• Estate of the artist 
• W.P. Mckenzie 
• G. Stuart Mckenzie, Concord, Massachusetts, 
• by 1945 Douglas Simpson, Montreal 
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (1974.3). Purchased 1974

To really appreciate Tom Thomson, it is important to place his art within the context of the times in addition to the science and the weather. My Thomson friends who included "Tom Thomson's Last Spring" do an admirable job of re-creating the era and the impacts of the Great War while incorporating as many historical facts as possible within his story. 

The significance of the unusual green brushstroke mentioned in an above graphic is still unresolved - another mystery.  The single, bold stroke appears near the intersection of the lower and right thirds. Thomson typically employed the "rule of thirds". He also often included bold and unusual colours on his panels to spark interest in the viewer. Tom liked to use cobalt blue as the "shocking colour"  but green works really well as a complementary colour to the reds in the sunrise scene. Perhaps that green stroke is simply a combination of both artistic tricks... Without talking to Tom we will never know for certain. 

Thank you again to my Thomson friends for bringing history to life. Of course, we cannot be certain as to the exact location of Thomson's painting but all of the clues certainly do fit. If nothing else, I certainly learned a few things during this adventure. Life is good!

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 astute reader might have noticed that the so-called "abandoned" logs described above were all jammed up on the right side of the current looking downstream. Was the location of the pile of logs a coincidence or perhaps the Coriolis force? The Coriolis effect is described in more detail in "Tom Thomson's The Sketch for the Drive". 

PSSS: Should you wish to have Creative Scene Investigation applied to one of Thomson's works that I have not yet included in this Blog, please let me know. It may already be completed but not yet posted. In any event, I will move your request to the top of the list. If you made it this far, thanks for reading! 

Tom Thomson's Moonlight Fall 1915

Sometimes it takes a team working together collaboratively, to deduce the most probable Creative Scene Investigation solution. The process is very similar to the Fireside Chats we had every shift at the Weather Centre. The troupe of Thomson friends who offer their expertise can collectively come up with some terrific revelations - right out of the blue! The group of specialists has grown over the years and it is important to listen to their sage opinions. 

Moonlight Fall 1915
Oil on composite wood-pulp board
10 3/8 x 8 1/2 in. (26.4 x 21.6 cm)
Tom's Paint Box size, 1915.83

With regards to "Moonlight Fall 1915", one Thomson friend wrote: 

​Some quick thoughts.  

• Foreground - no distinctive features, sparse vegetation, short unidentifiable conifers, taller trees (one apparently dead) could be black spruce.  
• Background - moderate distance away, relatively featureless skyline. 

The verso indicates some uncertainty about the date - "1916 or 15?".  Could this be a similar view to the ragged black spruce we dealt with at some length in a previous post?  (See "Tom Thomson's Ragged Pine 1916" pictured below). It was not the same tree, obviously.  Possibly looking south-ish across Little Cauchon Lake. The full moon was April 18th in 1916, conceivably during the fishing trip.  If this was at Little Cauchon Lake, could "Moonlight" been painted before the supercellular thunderstorm convection depicted in the ragged black spruce sketch? 

May be a bit of a stretch, but there is nothing to suggest whether it's actually fall - or spring, or summer for that matter.  We know that some of the sketches were misdated.  It's a start, anyway."

 These very astute "quick" perceptions from my Thomson friend were pure gold and more than just a "start"! Let's take a closer look.

The timing of Tom's plein air effort could be anywhere from mid-evening even up to midnight when the moon is in the southern sky.  

I then reached out to my colleague Johnny Weather and the following is what we came up with. 

"It seems like a placid night with a full moon. The moon is low in the sky causing a reflection on the lake. The artist is looking southerly with dead trees and younger ones in the foreground, the lake in the middle with the clouds and the moon in the centre, with hills in the background. The clouds are altocumulus invading from the west moving eastwards. There are signs of instability forming in the midlevels indicating Alto Cumulus Castellanus (ACC) or floccus forming like castles. Showers could form from those clouds around sunrise. The twirls in the closer clouds look like they are made from the mid level wind beginning to strengthen ahead of a warm front or maybe a warm conveyor belt. Tomorrow, the temperature will be warmer and more humid caused by the morning showers.

On the basic training observing met course we were taught to look at waving trees, flags, windsocks and waves to estimate the wind. White caps for example needed at least a wind of 20 knots (37 km/h). The lines on a windsock are 10 knots so if you can see 2 lines while preparing for takeoff, the wind is at least 20 knots. Flags need a 20 knot wind to be straight out."​

The practical  Beaufort Scale summarizes some of Johnny's wind observations mentioned above. 

Johnny also mentioned that he had "never witnessed those altocumulus patterns" in his long career.  Tom would have been anxious to record something so rare. I look for those swirls and if you look hard enough, you will find them. See "The Theory of Unified Swirls"  for background information on the formation and interpretation of swirls in the sky. In any case, this was an exceptional weather pattern that appeared in the sky while the artists visited around the campfire.  Tom just had to paint that weather!

The science of the atmospheric swells captured with singular strokes of Thomson's brush  (see the above graphic) is described in some detail in "Sunrise or Sunset - Seeing Even More Gravity Wave Clouds" and "Wind Waves and Swells and Lines in the Sky"... as well as other blogs. I employ the analogy of the atmospheric ocean and fluids in motion to better understand these patterns in the sky. 

Lewis Fry Richardson, (1881 – 1953) was an English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist, and pacifist who pioneered modern mathematical techniques of weather forecasting. He wrote the accompanying very insightful verse. He certainly looked at the weather with the same inquiring mind as Thomson. 

Those whirls in Thomson's sky may look chaotic but they are actually well-choreographed steps of the weather ballet. The paired "N" and "X"  swirls speak of local increases in the southwesterly flow that advect bursts of fuel, namely heat and moisture into the weather situation. Tom painted what he saw and science can unravel the meaning clearly hidden within those brush strokes. 

Using the information from Johnny Weather and the other Thomson friends, Thomson was located north of the surface warm front probably along the central axis of the warm conveyor belt (near the yellow star in the graphic). The instability observed by Thomson during the full-moon evening was a strong indication that the air mass was more than just a bit unstable! The supercellular thunderstorm that provided the inspiration for  "Ragged Pine 1916" could have easily occurred during the afternoon of the following day. 

The wind generating those significant waves was the last unknown required to fully understand this painting and perhaps a second plein air painting... please let me explain.

The support for this deduction would have been easy if Tom had only told us the direction of the wind that generated the waves on that moonlit evening. If the winds were easterly Beaufort Scale 5 as explained in the following graphic, the storm approaching on the southwestern horizon would have been large, slow-moving and strong. Those are the kind of spring storms that create ideal conditions for supercullular convection across Algonquin Park. See "Weather Lessons for Everyone from the Cold Conveyor Belt Wizard" for an explanation of how the direction and wind speed of the cold conveyor belt can be used to deduce the characteristics of the approaching storm.

Recall that Thomson stayed at Canoe Lake until mid-April 1916 and then joined Lawren Harris, Lawren’s cousin Chester Harris, and his patron Dr. MacCallum on the Cauchon Lakes for a fishing trip during the last two weeks of April. 

The orientation of the Cauchon Lakes encourages winds to channel along a northwest-southeast orientation. Briefly:

• A southerly or northerly wind would not be conducive to large waves over Little Cauchon given the relatively short fetch across the lake from those directions. 
• Southeasterly winds typically associated with a cold conveyor belt would have a long fetch and could produce large waves.
• Northwesterly winds in the wake of a cold front would also support large wave action.  

The unstable altocumulus skies indicate that a warm frontal weather situation was crossing the campsite that evening. The only option capable of producing large waves over Little Cauchon Lake was for Beaufort Scale 5 terrain funnelling southeasterlies associated with a cold conveyor belt. This is circumstantial evidence but can be convincing when added to the other observations. 

The yellow star on the following map locates the probable campsite for the fishing/painting trip.

Tom was camping with like-minded artists on Little Cauchon Lake. Life would have been very good!  The evidence provided above makes it a  strong possibility that "Moonlight" was painted on April 18th when the moon was full. The strong cold conveyor belt winds reveal that a strong and slow moving weather system was approaching their camp. The mesocyclone supercellular thunderstorm of "Ragged Pine (Black Spruce)" could have easily been recorded the following afternoon associated with the cold frontal passage. 

Note that really severe supercells tend to form on subtle convergence lines in advance of the surface cold front. Such lines are the possible remains of the nocturnal low-level jet, outflow boundaries from previous convection or a multitude of terrain-induced effects. These supercells have full access to the heat and moisture of the warm conveyor belt as well as wind shear. 

As a severe weather meteorologist, I would carefully diagnose the data looking for those convergence lines in anticipation of severe convection. It was vital to "pull the trigger" on the Severe Thunderstorm or even Toronado Warning when the first cumulus erupted along the identified line. Otherwise, there would be no chance of getting any significant lead time with the damaging event that was about to unfold. Vital predictive science must be completed before the event to anticipate the weather, aka forecasting the weather. After the storm develops, the science becomes more observational. By the way, none of this is going to appear on any exam... 

 "Moonlight" could have easily resulted from the same fishing trip as "Ragged Pine (Black Spruce) 1916" and the sketch for the "West Wind". Thomson was obviously in "the creative zone" producing some of his finest art. 

The application of the estate stamp on the lower right of the "Moonlight" panel barely left a mark - that is a good thing! 

Harris would have been with Tom that moonlit evening but the memory might have been fuzzy. Only two years later, he and MacDonald would be sorting through that tall stack of Thomson panels salvaged from the Shack. Perhaps Harris insisted that the painting was done in 1916 and not 1915 while others disagreed? We will never know. 

Harris and MacDonald assumed the challenge of organizing and building Tom's legacy. It was a monumental task and Canadian society continues to benefit from their efforts. Any errors are easily forgiven if people are doing their best. As well, history must be placed within the context of the times. Those years were very traumatic for both men.

Lawren enlisted in May 1916 but due to a heart defect was deemed medically unfit to serve overseas during World War One. He served as a musketry officer at Camp Borden and then Hart House at the University of Toronto. The death of Tom Thomson in July 1917, followed by that of Harris's beloved younger brother, Howard, while inspecting a German post in February 1918, would have pushed Lawren over the edge. Harris who also suffered from a serious sleep disorder, was consumed with grief. He suffered a nervous breakdown and based on medical grounds was discharged from the army in May 1918. 

MacDonald was also devastated by Tom's death. Recall that MacDonald was the senior artist at Grip and a close friend and mentor of Thomson. The fellowship fostered their art and they both grew tremendously. In September 1917, MacDonald and another Thomson friend, John William Beatty erected a memorial cairn at Hayhurst Point on Canoe Lake. The effort to carry the heavy materials up the slope and to build the pyramidal cairn was brutal. MacDonald suffered a physical collapse and possibly a stroke during its construction. He was bedridden for several months.

This is the context in which both men laboured to respect their lost friend in the spring of 1918. Both apparently sought refuge in art. Later in 1918, Harris prevailed upon MacDonald to join their now-famous boxcar trips to the Algoma region north of Lake Superior. The Group of Seven would follow in May 1920 and the rest is history...

New facts like those revealed during the "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" were only possible with the science developed since 1918. This knowledge may be added to the story but one must not change history. It is what it is.

Inscription recto: 

• l.r., estate stamp 

Inscription verso: 

• c., estate stamp; 

  

  "Moonlight" in Tom's Paint Box
  
  

• u.l., in graphite, 1916 or 15?; 
• u.m., in graphite, OK / GT (circled); 
• c., in graphite, n. 8134; 
• l.r., in graphite (upside down) 5552; 
• l.r., in graphite, under 2 above: 8;
• l.l., in graphite, The Art Emporium, Vancouver #4565; 
• l.l., #5; u.m., in graphite, R?; 
• u.m. on frame, #18 

Provenance: 

• Estate of the Artist 
• Private collection, by descent? 
• The Art Emporium, Vancouver 
• Laing Galleries, Toronto 
• Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, Montreal, 1986 
• Fraser Brothers Montreal, 23 October 1986, lot 118 
• Private Collection, Toronto

There can be no guarantee that the sequence of weather events as described actually occurred. However, I can recall several similar precedent weather situations. 

One memorable event southeast of Georgian Bay produced freezing rain overnight in advance of a warm front. The icy morning was followed by tornadic mesocyclones ahead of the cold front during the afternoon. A gentleman walking his dog got much too close to a tornado. The verifying report was appreciated although it is never advisable to be near severe weather. Apparently, the little dog even got briefly airborne! Both events were well predicted despite how rare and extreme they were. Those are the kind of days you live for as a meteorologist to serve and protect as best as you can. 

A lot of interesting stories can be discovered with boots on the ground, open minds and some science. As mentioned, this story might be fiction but the science is factual. Thank you once again to my Thomson friends.

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 Tea Lake Dam, Fall 1915

This is another of those panels from the stack of Thomson's paintings retrieved from the Shack after he died.  Lawren Harris and J.E.H. MacDonald had taken on a formidable task in the spring of 1918. It was too big of a job and they can be easily forgiven for making mistakes. In this case, they missed the obvious details in  "Tea Lake Dam, Fall 1915". That’s ok, a bit of science and knowledge from the Thomson friends can sort it out.

Tom’s art has dazzled many in the last century so there is no reason for art historians or curators to be dismayed.  I consulted my Thomson friends and they spotted the errors right away. This is a spring plein air painting and not from the fall of 1915. Could it have been the spring of 1916 when Tom was using more oils and spreading his creative wings? Please let us explain. 

Tea Lake Dam Fall 1915
Oil on wood 8 3/8 x 10 5/16 in. (21.3 x 26.2 cm)
Tom's Paint Box Size, 1915.82 

One Thomson expert commented:

"I think this sketch may be spring rather than fall, for various reasons. It appears logs are being driven downstream and passed through the dam via the sluice which has been opened by removing the stop logs. It is clearly an active operation, as there are several men on top of the dam (including what appears to be one or two on top of the superstructure over the sluice), and at least one of them appears to be holding a pole to assist in the operation. Logs are floating around below the dam. 

The vegetation is consistent with spring - e.g.. fresh greenery in the foreground and on some of the more distant trees. Also the bushes in the foreground have no leaves out yet, though it appears there may be buds (or possibly catkins) on them. Some of the distant trees appear to be in bud but with no leaves yet.

The pole was likely a perch or perche (French) - a long pole the loggers used for maneuvering logs from a distance. See also The Drive and The Pointers. Whether they were actually 1 perch long (5 1/2 yards - i.e. a rod) is another question, but that sort of pole would have been in common use for survey measurements at the time. The French word perche means pole or stick, so it could have been a pretty generic term."

My Thomson friend added:

"I'm not sure if the poles the men in the photo are holding are peavys or perches or something in between.  My impression of peavys is that they are probably no more than 6' long, with the metal spike on the end - at least that's the size of one of the ones they sell in local hardware stores.  One current version is 49".  Perhaps the old ones (both perches and peavys) were not strictly of a standard size.  A large hook (cant hook) is sometimes added.  Stihl (among other companies) still makes them."

"I also had the thought that it's difficult to judge relative sizes of some things when comparing them to the men.  A lot of those fellows were quite small by modern standards.  There are a few artefacts in the Schoolhouse Museum at Meilleurs Bay, such as trousers and caulk boots, that are surprising for their small size.  I don't think my feet would fit into the boots." 

As my Thomson friend noted, people are getting taller. The striking upward slope in the graph is unmistakable. This data (see Our World in Data) for adult men shows that on average, North American men were 167.85 cm tall in 1896. By 1996, men were 175.97 cm tall gaining on average 3.3 inches in height to reach about 5 foot 10 inches. Three to four inches of extra average height in just a century is quite a lot.

Frankly, there is nothing to add and I totally concur with those learned observations. I just added some graphics. 

There was quite a crew of nine men guiding those logs downstream. The spring meltwater was gushing through the sluice hopefully taking these logs to market. 

Logging in the area started in 1830 long before Algonquin Park was established. Algonquin Park was created in 1893 to establish a wildlife sanctuary and by excluding agriculture, to protect the headwaters of the five major rivers which flow from the Park. Logging is banned in all Ontario provincial and Canadian national parks except for Algonquin where about 45% of the park remains open to logging. The following historical images reveal the grim reality that the lumbermen faced including those working hard at Tea Lake Dam whom Tom included with a flick of his brush. 

Being a logger was dangerous work. Caulk boots were rugged spike-soled footwear to provide some traction. It was appropriate if better spikes might save the life of a comrade should the owner of those caulk boots make a fatal mistake. Thank you to another extremely knowledgeable Thomson friend. 

Informed opinions are hard-won! A picture may be worth a thousand words but sometimes, to be informed, one must read more than the images (especially true in this age of Artificial Intelligence and unlikely AI images on demand). The following books describing the lumber industry are vital reading. 

"Logging on the Schyan" published 1986,

"A Life in the Bush - Lessons from my Father" published 1999,  

"Along the Trail in Algonquin Park: With Ralph Bice" published 2001 

"Algonquin Harvest — The History of the McRae Lumber Company" published 2006, 

"Holy Old Whistlin' — Yarns About Algonquin Park Loggers" published 2006,  

"Lumber Kings & Shantymen — Logging and Lumbering in The Ottawa Valley" published 2006, 

"The Last Forest Ranger" published 2021, 

"A History of Forestry in Canada" published 2013,  

"The Last of the Wild Rivers: The Past, Present, and Future of the Rivière du Moine Watershed" published 2015 

"Fire Weather" published in 2023 and 

"The Power of Trees" published in 2023 or in fact, any book by Peter Wohlleben 

Being informed is a prerequisite to having a relevant opinion. This "Century of Fire" (see "Fire Weather") and the "Sixth Mass Extinction" continue to threaten the Algonquin mandate for the protection of wildlife and the headwaters of five major river systems. The future of resource extraction needs to be urgently reexamined if Algonquin Park might achieve those original goals. 

Next, I contacted my colleague "Johnny Weather". John Lade was a professional weather observer and meteorological adviser with very impressive credentials. John also taught at the Transport Canada Training Institute (TCTI) in Cornwall where his students knew him as "Johnny Met". 

"I had to research Tea Lake, the dam and the falls It seems like a beautiful spot for a picnic in the summer.  I think Tom picked the best area with the best view...  Regarding the weather, the cumulus clouds have lost their lift and the clouds are spreading into stratocumulus. The bases are darker indicating they are in the shadow of the tops. The visibility is really sharp with the distance hills some distance away. I don't think there was much pollution in Algonquin Park in 1915, I think that it was the second day of a high-pressure area with clouds looking a little torn by a brisk geostrophic wind."

Those are the kind of observations that one can make after a lifetime of experience! Johnny also makes the excellent observation that anticyclonic winds around a high-pressure area are stronger than the geostrophic gradient. The atmosphere resides on a spinning planet. The apparent centrifugal and Coriolis forces are introduced to compensate for our non-inertial frame of reference. 

Briefly, the centrifugal force points in the same direction as the pressure gradient force (PGF).  Suppose you curl the fingers of your Coriolis Hand (right hand in the northern hemisphere) anticyclonically in a ridge or around a high-pressure centre. In that case, your thumb must be pointing downward.  The descending airflow correlates with dry, fair weather. The observed gradient winds (anticyclonic blue arrow in the graphic) are stronger in the ridge. Meteorologists refer to the flow that includes the centrifugal force with the geostrophic wind as the gradient wind. This is one step closer to explaining what we actually observe in nature - on a spinning planet. 

For more information, the following blogs describe the science of the wind with graphics and your Coriolius hand. There are also several other blogs on the topic because moving air is so very important if you wish to appreciate the weather. The following links should be enough to get you started: 

• The Answer Really IS Blowing in the Wind,
• Applying the Gradient Wind Balance..., and
• Another Look at the Wind. 

The map below shows the terrain of the Tea Lake Dam area and the view toward the northeast. "Hill 1" in Tom's painting and on the topographical map is about 3.5 km from the Old Tea Lake Dam. Tom painted exactly what he saw and the bump in the terrain was a very deliberate stroke of his brush. 

Tea Lake Dam 

In this case, applying the Estate Stamp to "Tea Lake Dam" did not cause much damage on the lower right of the panel. The mark of the stamp is barely recognizable in the lower right on the available image. 

Inscription recto: 

• 
  l.r., estate stamp 

Inscription verso: 

• c., estate stamp; 
• u.l., in graphite, NG; 
• u.l., in graphite, Tea Lake Dam 1915 National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1523) 

Provenance:

• Estate of the artist 
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1523). Purchased 1918

Thomson helped to record a colourful and rich history of the lumber industry but there is another side to this story!

Roy MacGregor's maternal grandfather was Tom McCormick, Algonquin Park Chief Ranger. According to Roy, his grandfather thought "Tom was a bum".  Tom McCormick's brother Roy, would wed Marie Trainor, the younger sister of Winnifred (1885-1962). Tom Thomson (1877-1917) met Winnie in the summer of 1913. Tom was painting on Canoe Lake and the comely Winnie (about eight years younger) was staying at her parent's cottage in front of Mowat Lodge.... but that is another story.  My friend Roy MacGregor tells that sad and tragic tale in "Northern Light - The enduring mystery of TOM THOMSON and the woman who loved him". That excellent story was published in 2010 and needs to be added to the above essential reading list.  There may be a lot of reading to be completed but at the end of that research, you will be very well informed. 

Judge William T. Little who wrote "The Tom Thomson Mystery" interviewed the trapper Ralph Bice, a recipient of the Order of Canada and someone who personally knew Thomson. Bice born in 1900, was the son of a park ranger who was working the rails, clearing the brush and cutting wood when he met Thomson.  Little was taken aback when the old trapper dismissed Thomson as “a drunken bum” and disparaged his memory. Further Bice added: “This is ridiculous! Why don’t they let it die? They’ve got a lake named for him. He couldn’t paint unless he had a bottle of gin beside him.” These memories might be tarnished with personal disdain for Tom but there is some consistency that must be acknowledged.  

Sadly, the nine hard-working lumberjacks moving the logs through Tea Lake Dam that spring day probably felt the same as Tom McCormick and Ralph Bice. Those men sweated and risked life and limb to make a hard living. They could not even come close to comprehending the creation of art and a fit and able-bodied man like Thomson dabbing paint on a panel. 

Once again, I am greatly indebted to my Thomson friends for their valuable insights and suggestions included in this post! The story behind the art can be just as illuminating as the brush strokes - a mix of history, weather, biology, science and even commerce. In this case, the painting was irrefutably completed in the spring of the year and most likely in 1916 as Tom was forging his own creative path using more expressive brush strokes. Thank you! The following graphic serves as a comparison of Tom's painting style in 1916.

One Thomson friend observed that "Spring, Canoe Lake" as included in the above graphic, was actually the view from the beach in front of the Out-Side Inn at Achray on Grand Lake. That issue will be addressed in another blog. Many inconsistencies in the Thomson catalogue can be solved with boots on the ground, open minds and some science. We just wish to assist...

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.