The Log Run, c.1930

The Log Run was an early breakthrough in Pegi Nicol MacLeod’s career, establishing her as one of Canada’s rising artists. This small oil-on-board painting depicts a dense forest scene in front of the Gatineau River. It features twisting tree trunks and lush foliage in cool tones of green, blue, lavender, and soft purple, giving the work a dreamlike, almost abstract quality. A row of logs bisects the river, echoing the solitary trees found in works like Jack Pine, 1916–17, by Tom Thomson (1877–1917) or Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay, 1921, by F.H. Varley (1881–1969).

By 1930, the Group of Seven’s landscape aesthetic had come to define Canadian

modernism, and The Log Run clearly engages with this visual language through its bold use of colour, loose brushwork, and symbolic framing. Yet the painting departs from the Group’s more monumental treatment of wilderness. In her Post-Impressionist handling of this seemingly unpopulated stretch of the Gatineau River, MacLeod compresses space to create a scene that feels intimate and immersive. Though she would ultimately make a name for herself as a portraitist and figure painter, this early landscape work indicates her engagement with the artistic movements of her time.