A few months after Thomson painted this explosive panel, Lawren Harris (1885–1970) watched him sketching a scene like this one. In The Story of the Group of Seven, Harris wrote:

“I remember one afternoon in early spring on the shore of one of the Cauchon Lakes in Algonquin Park when a dramatic thunderstorm came up. There was a wild rush of wind across the lake and all nature was tossed into a turmoil. Tom and I were in an abandoned lumber shack. When the storm broke, Tom looked out, grabbed his sketch box, ran out into the gale, squatted behind a big stump and commenced to paint in a fury. He was one with the storm’s fury, save that his activity, while keyed to a high pitch, was nonetheless controlled. In twenty minutes, Tom had caught in living paint the power and drama of storm in the north.”

This Spotlight is excerpted from Tom Thomson: Life & Work by David P. Silcox.