Group of One

"Group of One" was inspired by Tom Thompson's painting called The Jack Pine. Tom Thompson was a Canadian painter in the mid 20th century who painted the Canadian landscape along with his contemporaries who made up a painting group called the 'Group of Seven". Tom Thompson was never officially part of the group of seven although he was considered an honorary member after his untimely death in Algonquin park due to a canoe accident in Canoe Lake. The title of my painting was both a tribute to him, as his own group, and also a comment on my status as a painter, without any like minded colleagues I consider myself to also be part of the "Group of One".

This is a 'classic' doodleism style, only classic in that the first one I did was way back in the 2000's.... basically I make a composite of small doodles that creates a larger image with it's own character. It is kind of like those posters that look like a big picture but are actually made up of a whole bunch of little pictures that you can only see if you look up close. In this painting I also tried to emulate some of the key features of the original "The Jack Pine" including the rich green and orange tones in the tree, and the interlocking pastel-coloured brush strokes that make up the water. The tree has an organic flowing quality, it kind of reminds me of a painting I did called Happy Days (Alien Hand on a post apocalyptic earth).

11x15" cold press 2010