Bob Kebic’s Visual Landscape Poetry

November 24, 2019 By Brett in Art, Ontario Tags: Canada, Canadian Art, Contemporary Art, Group of Seven, Impressionism, Inspiration, Landscape, Outdoors, Painting 67 Comments

Bob Kebic, No. 2136

Visual poetry is what comes to mind as I contemplate the highly saturated colors and rich textures of Bob Kebic’s impressionistic landscape compositions. His paintings are truly exquisite and are reminiscent of the outdoors imagery popularized by certain of the Group of Seven artists, particularly that of Tom Thomson. However, Kebic’s imaginative canvases reflect a contemporary sensibility by incorporating a subtle cubist stylization of distinctive squared-off “blocks” and edges within many of his works.

As this small sampling indicates, Kebic notably only titles his paintings with numbers, an approach that he regards as allowing each viewer to bring their own experiences of nature and landscape scenery to a piece without being overly influenced by a title that is tied to a location or that is otherwise suggestive.

You can see more of Kebic’s inspiring paintings at his official artist site and at the gallery sites for Toronto and Winnipeg’s Mayberry Fine Art and White Rock, B.C.’s White Rock Gallery.

Bob Kebic, No. 2143

Bob Kebic, No. 1028

Bob Kebic, No. 1095

Bob Kebic, No. 2007

(Image credits: Bob Kebic)

Similar Posts on O’Canada:

• Amazing Landscape Artistry of Philip Buytendorp, Jennifer Woodburn and Steve Coffey

• David Pirrie: Mapping Western Terrains and Our Sense of Place

• Robert McAffee — Artist to Appreciate

Magical Winterscapes by Group of Seven

December 29, 2014 By Brett in Art, History, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec Tags: Art, Canada, Group of Seven, Impressionism, Landscape, Modern Canadian Art, Painting, Winter 35 Comments

A. J. Casson, Rooftops

As the chill of wintry winds, snow and ice continues, a compilation of Canadian winterscapes by the Group of Seven artists seems in order. As always, the scenery by these talented artists is captivating! (Click on image to enlarge)

: A.Y. Jackson, Winter in Quebec

: Lawren Harris, Snow on Trees

: Arthur Lismer, Forest in Winter

: A.Y. Jackson, Winter, Charlevoix County

: Lawren Harris, House on Gerrard Street

: Lawren Harris, Lake and Mountains

: Lawren Harris, Pine Tree and Red House

: Lawren Harris, Snowfall

: Lawren Harris, Winter Sunrise

: Lawren Harris, Winter Woods

: Lawren Harris, Landscape With Pink House

: Tom Thomson, Early Snow

: Tom Thomson, Winter Thaw

: Tom Thomson, Wood Interior, Winter

: Lawren Harris, Winter in the Northern Woods

Similar posts on O’Canada:

→ The Group of Seven’s Landscape Explosion

→ The Very Vital Canadian Group of Painters

Robert McAffee — Artist to Appreciate

August 30, 2014 By Brett in Art, History, Ontario Tags: Art, Canada, Contemporary Art, Group of Seven, Inspiration, Landscape, Ontario, Paintings 31 Comments

Robert McAffee, The Foot of the Falls

Toronto-based Robert McAffee’s contemporary landscape art is striking in many ways. His lush scenes of the Canadian wilderness pay homage to the influences of several Group of Seven artists — notably Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson, A.J. Casson and Arthur Lismer. McAffee seems to have internalized aspects of each with a resulting style that is wonderfully distinct from any one of them. More about McAffee’s beautiful artwork and links to galleries that carry his pieces can be found at his website here.

Robert McAffee, The Three Sisters

R. McAffee, Fishing By the Rocks

Robert McAffee, North Shore Twisty

Robert McAffee, Waterfall

(Image credits: Artist’s website)

Similar Posts on O’Canada:

> David Silcox’s Exquisite Book on The Group of Seven

> The Group of Seven’s Landscape Explosion

> Amazing Landscape Artistry of Philip Buytendorp, Jennifer Woodburn and Steve Coffey

Another Favorite Publisher: Firefly Books

February 22, 2013 By Brett in Art, Books / Literature Tags: Bark Canoes, David Silcox, Douglas & McIntyre, Firefly Books, George Walker, Grand Landscapes, Graphic Witness, Group of Seven, Independent Spirit, Lawren Harris, Marvellous Terrible Place, Old Canadian Cemeteries, Pat & Baiba Morrow, Quebec 1850-1950, Tom Thomson, Yukon 2 Comments

Not long ago I commented on the remarkable Canadian publisher Douglas & McIntyre. Another nifty Canadian publisher worth taking note of is Firefly Books, which emphasizes non-fiction. Aside from McClelland & Stewart, a major Canadian publisher that is a division of Random House, it seems that when it comes to high quality books from Canada one of these two outfits is sure to have had a hand in such works. While Richmond Hill, Ontario-based Firefly produces a high number of science, nature and “how to” type books, the titles that stand out for me are those focused on art and photography. Their volumes in those two areas are among the best on their subject matters.

Pictured above is a random selection from the Firefly catalog. Coincidentally, I have four of these and each is very well done for its subject matter. Of these, David Silcox’s The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, is the subject of an earlier post here, and I plan to comment on Pat & Baiba Morrow’s The Yukon and George Walker’s Graphic Witness — each mesmerizing in its own way — in the next few weeks.

Although it’s generally not fair to judge a book by its cover, the graphic elements of book design can play a role in pulling in a prospective reader. So it’s a minor complaint that the website for Firefly Books, unfortunately, does not do its catalog justice in this respect. When searching for a book a listing of titles is initially displayed and one must click on the title to get more information and only then get a visual on a given title. Of course, this is a non issue once you’ve located the book for which you were searching or already have it in your hands

David Silcox’s Exquisite Book on The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson

October 16, 2010 By Brett in Art, Books / Literature Tags: A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Canadian Art, David Silcox, Edwin Holgate, Emily Carr, F. H. Varley, Frank Carmichael, Frank Johnston, Group of Seven, J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris, LeMoine Fitzgerald, Royal Ontario Museum, Tom Thomson 7 Comments

While in Toronto recently I stayed at a hotel across from the Royal Ontario Museum. Although I did not have sufficient time to tour the Museum, I briefly stopped by its gift shop. Browsing through the art books on display I came across an amazing book on the Group of Seven that I had not previously seen and which I had to have.

Once back in Atlanta as I leisurely browsed through the simply named volume, The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson, by David Silcox (Firefly Books 2001), I was impressed anew at this amazing collaboration of early twentieth-century artists who helped define a distinctively Canadian style of painting. (See previous post on OCanadaBlog here.) It also gave me a greater appreciation in particular for Tom Thomson, but for whose untimely death in 1917, the collective might well have been called the Group of Eight. As one of the other members, Lawren Harris, noted in a narrative of the Group, “although the name of the group did not originate until after his death, Tom Thomson was, nevertheless, as vital to the movement, as much a part of its formation and development, as any other member.”

Tom Thomson, Autumn Foliage

Silcox’s beautifully compiled book is organized into thematic sections, initially around some broad categories, such as “Icons: Images of Canada,” “The First World War,” and “Cities, Towns and Villages,” and then by geographic regions, including “The East Coast,” “The St. Lawrence River and Quebec,” “Algonquin Park and Georgian Bay,” and “The Prairies, Rockies and West Coast,” among others. This approach enables a wonderful comparison of each artist’s perspective on the same subjects and geography. Preceding each section is a brief narrative by the author that provides historical and cultural context that enriches the understanding of the individual Group members and their works.

Tom Thomson, In the Northland

The Group of Seven’s Landscape Explosion

March 15, 2010 By Brett in Art Tags: A.J. Casson, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Canadian Painters, Edwin Holgate, Emily Carr, F. H. Varley, Frank Carmichael, Frank Johnston, Group of Seven, J.E.H. MacDonald, Landscape Painting, Lawren Harris, LeMoine Fitzgerald, Tom Thomson 7 Comments

J.E.H. MacDonald, The Solemn Land

While reading a story in the latest volume of The Journey Prize Stories (more on that collection in a later post) I came across this passing reference to the Group of Seven: “Straight ahead a group of smallish islands. Like the Group of Seven but realer and more sad.” The narrator’s incidental reminder of this ground-breaking group of Canadian artists, who first rose to prominence in the 1920s (although several painted well after this period), prompted me to refresh my knowledge of an amazing band of painters who are not well-known to many people here in the U.S., but who collectively serve as a cultural touchstone for Canadians, as indicated by the above quote from the story I was reading.

Lawren Harris, Clouds, Lake Superior

The members of the group initially consisted of Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Frederick Varley. Frank Johnston left the group in 1926 and A.J. Casson was invited to take his place. In addition, Tom Thomson and Emily Carr are also closely associated with the principal seven, and Thomson, in particular, was very influential even though his passing in 1917 preceded the group’s most prolific period. It’s fair to say that their collective focus on the Canadian landscape helped define in the popular imagination the majesty of Canada’s vast natural treasures.

Frederick Varley, Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay

Their work reminds me of the more loosely defined California School of American landscapists, whose many paintings of the American West during the first half of the Twentieth Century exhibit a subject matter and color palette remarkably similar to that of the Group of Seven. Both groups were obviously borrowing from and re-interpreting the approaches developed by the French Impressionists several decades earlier, and the Group of Seven evolved to adopt the vivid colors of Post-Impressionism and the simplified forms of abstraction of Art Nouveau. While other points of commonality can be found between the work of these artists and others here in the States (for instance, Lawren Harris’s spare abstracted landscapes bear a striking resemblance to some of Georgia O’Keeffe’s pieces), even if one does not recognize these connections there is much to appreciate in the Group’s representations of Canada’s diverse geography.

A.J. Casson, Rapids

As a whole the Group of Seven were prolific and their paintings and other works are held in many Canadian and other museums and collections. There are also several useful websites devoted to the Group with rich resources available for further exploration. Most notably, perhaps, is the site for Ontario’s McMichael Canadian Art Collection / Gallery (http://www.mcmichael.com/collection/seven/index.cfm), which houses one of the largest collections of the Group’s works. The CBC has a wonderful set of digital archives (http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/visual_arts/topics/754/) featuring video and audio on various aspects of the work of the Group, including rare interviews and footage of some of the artists themselves.